Nov. 12, 2002
Box Score?|?Quotes?|?Photo Gallery
Lexington, KY – The University of Kentucky women’s basketball team opened the 2002-03 season with a convincing 87-50 win over the BEAC-Siemens traveling team from Hungary on Tuesday, Nov. 12 in their first exhibition game at Memorial Coliseum.
The Wildcats opened a tight first half with a 10-0 run to take a 39-24 lead at the half. Sophomore Sara Potts, who led all scorers with 24 points, sparked the scoring spree, scoring eight points on two three-pointers and a layup. The Rochester Hills, Mich., native had 17 points in the first half and was a perfect 8-for-8 from the field, including 4-of-4 from the three-point line.
The Cats shot 13-for-30 (43.3%) from the floor in the first half and forced 19 BEAC turnovers. UK came out in the second half and used its aggressive inside play to dominate the remainder of the game.
“That was a big part of our game plan. I told them I didn’t want to see any outside shots until the ball had gone inside,” UK Coach Bernadette Mattox said. “I thought Keiko (Tate), Shambrica (Jones) and SeSe (Helm) did an excellent job. We got the ball to them, they took it hard to the hole and they were very big inside. I liked their aggressiveness.”
Junior All-America and All-SEC candidate SeSe Helm was the story of the second half as she scored all 15 of her points in the second stanza. Helm helped stretch the lead to 56-32 before the Cats eventually pulled ahead 79-42. Tate scored six points in a 12-2 Wildcat run and finished with 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds. UK never looked back, cruising to a 37-point victory.
Kentucky dominated on the interior, outscoring the Hungarian team 40-14 in the paint. The Cats shot 32-for-66 (48.5%) for the game, compared to only 20-for-53 (37.7%) for Basketball Travelers. Kentucky recorded 16 steals, including four by Potts, and forced 29 turnovers. Rita Adams dished out a game-high five assists for UK.
“Although we won big, we need to go back and work on all aspects of our game,” Mattox said. “We need to continue to get better. We’re going to work on our low post, we’re going to work on our outside shooting and we’re going to work on our execution. All those things need tightening before we begin the regular season.”
All 13 Wildcats saw action in the game and 11 players recorded points. The Basketball Travelers were led by Csilla Bartha and Viktoria Nagy who scored 17 and 10 points, respectively.
Kentucky will again be in action on Sunday, Nov. 17, at 2 p.m., when they play host to the Premier Players in their final exhibition game before opening the regular season on Monday, Nov. 25, against Southern Illinois at home.
