Kentucky Women’s Basketball Postgame Notes
No. 15/12 Kentucky vs. No. 24/25 Texas A&M
Reed Arena, College Station, Texas
No. 25/24 Texas A&M 73, No. 15/12 Kentucky 71 – FINAL
Team Records and Series Notes
- Kentucky moves to 17-4 on the season and 4-3 in the league while Texas A&M is now 16-4, 5-2 in the SEC.
- The Wildcats will return to action Thursday vs. No. 19 South Carolina at 6:30 p.m. ET inside Memorial Coliseum. The game will be televised on the SEC Network while Darren Headrick will have the call on radio on the UK Sports Network.
- The all-time series now swings in Texas A&M’s favor, 5-4.
- UK owns a 3-2 mark all-time against TAMU in games played in College Station.
- The Aggies have won each of the last three meetings.
- UK is now 815-536 all-time in its 45 years as a program.
- Matthew Mitchell is in his 12th year with the Wildcats and holds a 273-121 record. Mitchell is 303-150 overall in 14 years as a head coach.
- Kentucky is ranked No. 15 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 12 in the USA Today/Coaches Top 25.
- Texas A&M is the sixth ranked opponent that Kentucky has played this season.
- The Wildcats own a 3-3 record against ranked teams with wins against Missouri, South Florida and Tennessee and losses to Mississippi State, Louisville and Texas A&M.
- Kentucky is in the middle of a three-game stretch of facing ranked foes.
Team Notes
- Kentucky used the starting combination of senior guard Taylor Murray, senior guard Maci Morris, freshman guard Rhyne Howard, sophomore forward KeKe McKinney and sophomore forward Tatyana Wyatt.
- The Wildcats are 15-3 with those starting five this season.
- Rhyne Howard kept the Wildcats in the game in the first half, making four 3’s, two in each quarter.
- Texas A&M’s largest lead of the half was nine points at 14-5. Kentucky tied the game at 31-31 with 1:23 remaining in the second quarter.
- It was the first time the game was tied since 2-2.
- UK never led in the first half.
- Texas A&M started the second half 6-for-6 from the field and 3-for-3 from 3 to take a 50-40 lead.
- The Aggies used a 15-5 run to take the 10-point lead, scoring on all of its first eight possessions of the third quarter.
- After trailing by as many as eight points in the fourth quarter, UK rallied to pull within one point with 6.9 seconds left in the game.
- UK missed a jumper that would have tied the game in the dying seconds.
- The Wildcats kept TAMU without a field goal the final 2:21 of the game (five possessions).
- Kentucky shot 25-for-63 from the field for 39.7 percent in the game.
- Texas A&M shot 52 percent from the floor (25-for-48) and 6-for-8 from 3.
- The six 3-pointers is tied for the most made by the Aggies in a game since Dec. 15 vs. Oregon State
- Texas A&M shot 52 percent from the floor (25-for-48) and 6-for-8 from 3.
- UK outrebounded a much taller Texas A&M team, 34-31.
- Rhyne Howard led the Kentucky rebounding attack with eight rebounds in the game, four offensive and four defensive.
- UK had 13 offensive team rebounds, which were more than double TAMU’s six.
Player Notes
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Senior guard Maci Morris scored a game-high 22 points, including 12 in a row for UK in the fourth quarter to pull UK within five points.
- Morris now has 1,541 career points, which ranks ninth most in program history. She needs 22 more point to tie Sara Potts for 8th all-time in school history in points scored.
- Morris has 230 career 3-pointers made which ranks second in program history. She needs 41 more 3s to tie Sara Potts for most all-time.
- 16 of her game-high 22 points came in the second half, including 12 in the fourth quarter.
- Morris shot 6-of-9 (66.6%) from the floor in the second half.
- Sunday marked the sixth game this season Morris has scored 20-plus points.
- Sophomore forward Rhyne Howard scored 21 points in the game, which included an SEC-high tying five 3-pointers (Ole Miss).
- Howard has now scored 20+ points in seven games this season for UK.
- She went 7-for-15 from the floor and 5-of-10 from long range.
- Senior guard Taylor Murray scored eight points in the game.
- Murray now has 1,211 career points and ranks 21st all-time in points scored. She needs four more to tie Stacy McIntyre for 20th all-time.
- Murray has 402 career assists which ranks ninth most in program history. She passed Rita Adams for eighth all-time in UK history.
- Murray has 253 career steals which ranks seventh most in program history. She needs 19 more steals to move into the top five in program history.
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Sophomore forward KeKe McKinney scored nine points and had seven rebounds in the game.
- McKinney’s nine points are the most in SEC play since her nine to open league play vs. Vanderbilt on Jan. 3.
- Her performance was the seventh game this season in which she has grabbed seven or more rebounds in a game.