Feb. 26, 2000
The University of Kentucky women’s basketball team bids farewell to fiveseniors on Sunday, Feb. 27 at 2 p.m. when it plays host to No. 20 MississippiState in the final regular season game in Lexington.
Erica Jackson, Natalie Martinez, Shantia Owens, Katie Vieth and TiffanyWait hope to end the regular season on a winning note when they play theirlast game in Memorial Coliseum. The senior will be honored in a specialpre-game ceremony prior to the game.
“Mississippi State is a great team and this is an important game for us,”Wait said. “But it is not only important to us because its our last game athome, but because we want to go to the NCAA Tournament and make a run for theNational Championship.”
Wait will play in her 120th career game on Sunday, tying the schoolrecord with Patty Jo Hedges (1979-83) for most games played in a career.
The Cats (14-12, 5-8 Southeastern Conference) are riding a two-game winstreak after defeating Louisville and Ole Miss last week. They are currentlyin a three-way tie for seventh place in the SEC standings with Alabama andFlorida. Sunday’s win is needed to improve the conference record and buildconfidence heading into the SEC Tournament in Chattanooga, Tenn., on March2-5.
Mississippi State, under the direction of former Kentucky head coachSharon Fanning, enters Sunday’s game ranked No. 20 in the Associated Presspoll after an impressive 19-6 overall record, 7-6 in the SEC. Despite winningonly one of the last four conference games, the Lady Bulldogs turned headswith a near upset of No. 3 Tennessee and a 66-57 win over Florida last week.
“Mississippi State has the one of the best freshman players in thecountry with LaToya Thomas and like us, will be ready to end their regularseason on a win. We have to contain Thomas and rebound as well as we did inour last game against Ole Miss. We also need more contribution for our benchplayers.”
MSU’s Thomas, a 6-2 freshman from Greenfield, Miss., leads the SEC inscoring, averaging 20.0 points per game. Also averaging in double digits issophomore guard Jennifer Fambrough with 14.2 ppg and junior guard CynthiaHall with 13.2 ppg.
The Wildcats are led by sophomore LaTonya McDole with 11.9 points pergame while junior forward Laura Meadows, who scored her 1,000th career pointon Thursday, averages 11.6 ppg. Senior guard Erica Jackson follows in thescoring column with 11.0 ppg.
The Cats own a 13-7 lead in the all-time series with the Lady Bulldogsand are 7-2 against them in Lexington. Although UK has lost the last twomatchups with MSU, the Lady Bulldogs have not won in Memorial Coliseum sincea 68-61 decision in 1988.
