The Kentucky women?s basketball team hopes to snap its three-game losing skid when it travels to Gainesville, Fla., to take on No. 24 Florida on Sunday, Feb. 8 at 3 p.m. ET. The game will be televised live as the SEC-TV Game of the Week on Fox Sports Net South. It also will be carried live on WLXG-AM Sports Radio 1300 with Chris Cross.
?Florida is playing extremely well right now,? UK Coach Mickie DeMoss said. ?Vanessa Hayden is just a power inside and will probably be one of the top draft picks in the WNBA this season. They also are getting a lot of help from some junior college players they?ve signed and they are just a really tough team.?
Florida (15-5, 5-2 SEC) is having an impressive season after finishing 9-19, 1-13 in the SEC last season. The Gators are riding a four-game win streak and received a national ranking for the first time since the 2001-02 season when they defeated then-ranked No. 24 Vanderbilt 92-83 on Sunday. Florida is UK?s third ranked opponent in four games.
With three Wildcats out sick, No. 19/22 Auburn took advantage of UK?s depleted bench, defeating the Wildcats 71-54 on Thursday. The loss was the third straight for the Wildcats (9-12, 1-7 SEC) after falling to Ole Miss and top-ranked Tennessee.
Kentucky is led in scoring by junior Sara Potts, who has combined for 78 points in the last three games for an average of 26.0 points per game. The Rochester Hills, Mich., native leads the conference in three-pointers made and needs just seven more to become UK?s all-time leader in three-point field goals made. Potts averages a team-best 16.4 points per game, including 18.8 ppg in conference play. SeSe Helm and Jenny Pfeiffer follow with 14.7 and 11.8 ppg, respectively. Helm and Potts also are the team?s top rebounders with 7.5 and 6.2 rpg.
The Gators are led by senior Vanessa Hayden. The 6-4 center is averaging 19.4 points and 11.9 rebounds per game and is coming off her 14th double-double of the season with 22 points and 11 rebounds vs. the Commodores. She became just the fifth Gator to score 1,000 career points and collect 1,000 career rebounds. Also averaging in double-digit scoring is Bernice Mosby and Tashia Morehead with 13.1 and 12.7 points per game.
DeMoss returns to Florida where she served as the third overall and first full-time head coach for the Lady Gators from 1979-83. She charted a 45-68 record for UF.
UF owns a 17-15 lead in the all-time series despite falling to the Cats in Lexington last season, 49-47. Kentucky has won three of the last five meetings but hasn?t won in Gainesville since a 72-58 victory on Jan. 10, 2000.
