Senior guard/forward Sara Potts led a trio of Kentucky players in double figures with 19 points as the Wildcats defeated Charleston Southern Friday in Memorial Coliseum 89-33. UK held the Lady Buccaneers to just 12 field goals in the game and the second-lowest point total against a Division I opponent in school history.
The Wildcats (5-3) limited Charleston Southern (2-4) to a mere nine points at halftime, marking the fewest points scored by an opponent in the first half in UK history. The Cats held an opponent to less than 40 points for the first time since holding Morris Brown to 32 points in 2002.
?We were just playing to improve,? UK Coach Mickie DeMoss said. ?That?s what I told them, ?You?re still working on your game, regardless of the score. You still need to work on your game and how to get better.? It was important for us tonight to maintain some level of intensity for 40 minutes because we haven?t been able to do that. We?ve played in spurts on the road. So, I thought for the most part we maintained pretty good intensity in the game.?
UK shot 49.3 percent from the floor and the Lady Buccaneers were limited to 30.8 percent shooting. Kentucky won the battle of the boards for the fifth time this season, out-rebounding CSU 39-26. Charleston Southern did not make a three-point basket in the game, while the Wildcats shot 48 percent (12-of-25) from beyond the arc powered by five three-pointers from Potts.
Potts, who matched up against younger sister Rachel for the first time in her basketball career, went 7-of-17 from the floor and hit 5-of-11 shots from three-point range. She also brought down a team-high six rebounds. Rachel Potts, a sophomore for CSU, started the game and went 0-of-2 from the floor but pulled down three rebounds.
Freshman guard Samantha Mahoney, who along with fellow newcomer Chante? Bowman, notched her first career start and tallied a career-high 16 points on 70 percent shooting (7-of-10) from the field. Sophomore point guard Angela Phillips scored in double figures for the second time in three games, as she registered 10 points and made three of her five three-point attempts. Phillips has totaled nine three-pointers in the last three games for Kentucky. Junior forward/center Jennifer Humphrey made 4-of-5 shots and added nine points to complement four rebounds in just 18 minutes of play. Freshman center Sarah Elliott contributed nine points and five boards.
CSU opened the game with a 4-0 lead before Kentucky battled back to pull ahead 5-4 at the 16:46 mark of the first half. The Cats tightened their defense and the Lady Bucs missed their next eight shots. A 12-0 UK run over the next 5:34 allowed UK to take a 17-4 lead on a crafty baseline move by Elliott. Leading 17-6, the Wildcats went on a 13-2 run over the next 4:48 to take a 32-8 lead going into a timeout at the 3:12 mark of the game.
UK jumped out to an overwhelming 40-9 advantage at the half, shooting 48.5 percent from the field (16-of-33), including 7-of-12 from the three-point line. Both Phillips and Potts achieved double-figure point totals in the opening half, with 10 and 11 points, respectively. The Lady Bucs managed to shoot only 12.5 percent from the floor in the first half, after struggling to hold on to the ball. They committed 17 turnovers, resulting in 18 UK points. For the game, Charleston Southern committed 30 turnovers and UK capitalized by scoring 37 points off of the Lady Bucs? miscues.
?I thought we were able to get out in the passing lanes a little more tonight and be a little bit more aggressive,? DeMoss said. ?Hopefully, we can build on it and keep making defense a priority for us. Our defense is something where I haven?t had a lot of complaints on. Against Louisville, we turned the ball over and it was transition baskets. Our offense created some of their offense. I was real pleased with our defense tonight.?
The Wildcats went on a 10-2 run to open the second half, taking a 50-13 lead on back-to-back three-pointers by Mahoney with 17:40 remaining in the game. A resounding trey by Potts pushed the Kentucky advantage out to 42, 59-17, at the 14:25 mark of the second stanza. A put-back by Roddy, at the nine-minute mark gave UK its largest lead of the season 73-23, following a 5-0 Kentucky run. A lay-up by Mahoney allowed the Wildcats to extent their lead to 59 points, 84-25, with 3:23 left.
?Their shooting was extraordinary tonight,? CSU Coach Stephanie Yelton said. ?They hit shots when they weren?t open, they hit shots when they were open. Of course, they were able to crash the boards being bigger, more physical players. The battle in the paint was in their favor tonight.?
Kentucky returns to action on Sunday as it travels to Huntington, W.Va., to face Marshall in the Cam Henderson Center. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. ET. For ticket information call 1-800-THE-HERD. The first 500 fans in attendance will receive a commemorative Jam the Cam IV t-shirt. The game will be carried live on WLXG AM 1300 with Chris Cross.
