Nov. 25, 2002
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Lexington, Ky. – It was a tale of two halves as the University of Kentucky women’s basketball team clawed back from a four-point deficit at halftime to defeat Southern Illinois, 79-53, in its season opener at Memorial Coliseum on Monday. The win was the fifth consecutive season-opening victory for the Wildcats.
Kentucky (1-0), who trailed 34-30 at the half, outscored the Salukis (0-2) 49-19 in the second half thanks to a 25-3 run sparked by senior guard Rita Adams. Adams paced five Wildcats in double digits with 16 points, 12 coming in the second half.
With junior All-SEC candidate SeSe Helm on the bench in foul trouble, Shambrica Jones and junior Jenerrie Everette picked up the slack in the middle. Everette finished the game with a career-high six points while Jones notched her first career double-double, scoring 13 points and a career-high 11 rebounds.
“What we got from Rita in the second half, we need from her every game,” UK Coach Bernadette Mattox said. “It was definitely the tale of two halves. It was our first game and we finally realized in the second half that we had to take care of business. Jenerrie (Everette) also was a spark for us and she knows that is her role. They all gave great effort in the second half.”
Helm came back into the game with 10:57 remaining and helped pace an impressive 27-6 Kentucky run to end the game. Helm ended the game with 15 points and six rebounds. Adams also added five rebounds, four assists and four steals. Her four assists moved her past Tiffany Wait into seventh-place on the all-time assist list at UK with 342 career dimes. Sara Potts added 11 points and Keiko Tate rounded out the scoring column with 10.
“I thought we played well defensively, especially defending their best player who came in averaging 15.0 points per game,” Mattox said. “We held her to only two points and that hurt them. Our press was also really working tonight and our players didn’t want to quit pressing.”
The first half consisted of a back-and-forth game in which neither team could move ahead by more than six points. Helm led with nine points in the opening stanza. Jones was tough in the post for Kentucky, scoring eight points and pulling down seven rebounds in the first half. Potts chipped in seven points in the first.
The UK defense, which allowed SIU to shoot 40 percent in the first stanza, improved in the second half, holding the Salukis to just 25 percent from the floor in that frame. SIU shot 32.8 percent for the game while UK hit on 45.5 percent of its field goal attempts. The Cats forced 20 Saluki turnovers in the game, 12 of those in the second half. UK committed only 11 turnovers.
Southern Illinois was led by Katie Berwanger, who led all scorers with 20 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Tiffany Crutcher added 10 points and nine boards.
UK will next be in action on Friday, Nov. 29, when it travels to Seattle, Wash., for the Seattle Times Husky Classic. The tournament will be played on Nov. 29 and 30. The Cats will play the University of the Pacific at 8 p.m. ET on Friday.
