ST. THOMAS, Virgin Islands?Rutgers forward Michelle Campbell scored 17 points and pulled down 12 rebounds as the No. 17/18 Scarlet Knights defeated Kentucky 75-60 in the championship game of the Paradise Jam Saturday in the UVI Sports and Fitness Center in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. Leading scorer Sara Potts played just eight minutes in the game with a stomach virus. She was named to the all-tournament team after averaging 25.5 ppg in two games during the weekend.
Kentucky (3-2) had four players score in double figures, but with Potts sidelined the Wildcats could not find an answer for a potent Rutgers (4-0) attack. The Scarlet Knights shot 47 percent from the field in the game and made 54 percent of their shots from behind the three-point arc. Chelsea Newton added 14 points and Nikki Jett chipped in 13 for Rutgers.
?It was a tough game today with Sara Potts being out,? UK Coach Mickie DeMoss said. ?We knew that even if we had Potts, it would be a tough game. She had the stomach flu and just couldn?t go. She tried to play and just wasn?t able to. It did give us a chance to give some young players some very valuable playing time and those players stepped up big in the scoring column.?
UK freshman Samantha Mahoney scored a career-high 15 points filling in for Potts at the point. Mahoney made seven-of-nine attempts from the charity stripe to lead the Cats, who shot 77.8 percent from the free-throw line. Senior Danyelle Payne scored a season-high 14 points to complement five assists, while freshman center Sarah Elliott added 13 and junior transfer Nastassia Alcius registered 12. The UK bench out-scored the Rutgers bench 44-24.
Kentucky, which missed its first four shots and found itself down 10-0 early in the game, trailed by 20, 41-21, at intermission. Trailing 54-35 early in the second half, the Cats went on an 11-2 run to cut its deficit to 10, 56-46, with 7:05 remaining in the game on a basket by Mahoney. Rutgers, however, proved to be too much for the Wildcats, extending their lead to 19, 70-51, on a free-throw shot by Newton.
?I was proud of our team making a comeback,? DeMoss said. ?What I?m not so pleased about is that we get down and put ourselves in a hole. I think we are still trying to find a combination that will play on both ends of the floor. Right now we have a group that will score and punch on one end of the floor, but lacks defense on the other end. I think with our young kids, they?re not used to the tempo of the game. Hopefully we can get them worked out before we start conference play.?
The Wildcats return to action on Wednesday, Dec. 1 when they travel to Evanston, Ill., to face Northwestern at 5 p.m. EST. The game will be carried live on WLXG-AM 1300 with Chris Cross and also on ukathletics.com.
Paradise Jam All-Tournament Team
Executive Director of Basketball Travelers Nels Hawkinson, Sara Potts (Kentucky), Michelle Campbell – MVP (Rutgers), Chelsea Newton (Rutgers), Matee Ajavon (Rutgers), Shannon Howell (Oregon State)
Not Pictured – Shannon Schlagel (South Dakota State)
