Jan. 9, 2002
Media Contact: Susan Lax – 859-257-3838 or slax0@uky.edu
For Immediate Release
The Kentucky women’s basketball team will play its second straight conference road game when it meets No. 8 Vanderbilt in Nashville, Tenn., on Thursday, Jan. 9 at 8 p.m. ET in Memorial Gym. The game will be broadcast live on WLXG Sport Radio 1300 with Chris Cross.
The Wildcats, coming off an exciting 73-72 win at Alabama on Thursday are 8-6 overall and 1-1 in the Southeastern Conference. UK looks to capture its first win over Vanderbilt in Nashville in 16 years and snap the Commodores’ 13-game home win streak. UK’s last win in Memorial Gym was Feb. 5, 1986 (79-70).
“Vanderbilt has a group of talented players and we must limit our mistakes in order to win this ball game,” UK Coach Bernadette Mattox said. “We’ve been working in practice on our shooting and on maintaining our intensity. In our last two games, we went on big runs but allowed them to come back due to poor decision making.”
Sophomore center SeSe Helm, who notched a team-high 23 points against the Crimson Tide, leads the Cats in scoring (17.5) and rebounding (6.8) and has scored in double-figures in every game this season. Junior point guard Rita Adams averages 10.6 points per game and leads the SEC in steals. Senior forward LaTonya McDole has scored in double figures in three of the last four games for Kentucky and is the team’s third leading scorer with 9.6 points per game.
Vanderbilt, ranked No. 8 in the Associated Press poll and No. 6 in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Top 25 poll, returns to conference action after playing host to back-to-back non-conference games in Penn State and Louisville.
The Commodores (14-3, 0-1 SEC) defeated the Nittany Lions, 77-62 and easily handled UK’s instrastate rival Louisville, 71-32. VU’s three losses this season have all been against ranked opponents, No. 1 Connecticut 69-50, No. 13 Texas Tech 81-71 and No. 15 South Carolina, 71-52.
Junior All-SEC performer Chantelle Anderson leads the three Dores in double-digit scoring, averaging 19.8 points per game. Seniors Zuzi Klimsova and Jillian Danker follow with 16.2 and 10.4 ppg, respectively. Klimsova is the team’s leading rebounder with 7.4 boards per game.
Coach Jim Foster is in his 11th season at the helm of the Commodores. He has led Vanderbilt to an impressive 240-95 record and he owns a 488-221 mark in his 24th year as a head coach.
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