The Kentucky women?s basketball team will ring in 2005 on a positive note after holding off Wake Forest for a thrilling 66-61 victory Thursday, Dec. 30 in Rupp Arena. Freshman Sarah Elliott led the charge with 20 points in only her second collegiate start. The 6-6 center hit 8-of-12 from the floor and shot a perfect 4-for-4 mark from the free-throw line to complement a team-high eight rebounds and tie a career-high with three blocks.
Senior guard/forward Sara Potts also tallied double digits, scoring 15 points while freshman guard Samantha Mahoney added 12 points on 4-for-8 shooting in a career-high 33 minutes of action. The Wildcats (9-4) connected on an all-time Rupp Arena record 95.8 percent (23-of-24) from the charity stripe, despite shooting a season-low 36.3 percent (20-of-55) from the floor.
?We needed this one,? UK Coach Mickie DeMoss said. ?I thought it was a great game, a great team effort. We just battled really hard against a really good Wake Forest team. I?m just really proud, particularly of our young players. They grew up a lot tonight. They had to play a lot of minutes. We had some illnesses on the team tonight. Keiko (Tate) and Lanky (Humphrey) have been sick for two days. They were limited, obviously with their minutes, so we had to go with our young players tonight and a couple of our veterans helped us out too. It was a good win.?
UK took control of the game early, jumping out to a 9-0 lead. The Cats eventually took a 37-29 advantage into the locker room after shooting 41.9 percent (13-for-31) from the field. Their aggressive play on the defensive end allowed them to hold the Demon Deacons to a mere 32 percent (8-for-25) from the floor. The game marked only the second time this season that the Demon Deacons have trailed at halftime.
?I was really proud of our defensive intensity tonight,? DeMoss said. ?We came out wanting to be more aggressive. I thought we played too soft in the Xavier game, especially in the second half. We were back on our heels. I guess we didn?t want that to happen tonight. We got out in the passing lanes. We took them out of a lot of things. We made them catch the ball outside the three-point arc. I think we set the tone on the defensive end tonight.?
Wake Forest (10-2) continued to fight, chipping away at the Cats? halftime lead to eventually tie the game at 56 with 5:08 left. The Deacs? Cotelia Bond-Young seemed unstoppable in the second half, connecting on five straight three-pointers. UK went on an 8-2 run to push the lead back to six, 64-58 with 28 seconds remaining, as free throws by Elliott and Potts sealed the win for the Cats. Wake Forest?s Meredith Bell hit a three-pointer for the Demon Deacons with 10 seconds left, but Danyelle Payne’s two free throws iced the victory in the waning seconds.
The Demon Deacons were led by Bond-Young, who finished with a game-high 18 points. She hit a career-best and all-time Rupp Arena record 6-of-10 three-pointers including 5-of-7 in the second half. Liz Strunk added 11 points and nine rebounds.
A defensive battle from the get-go, the two teams were even on the boards with 36 rebounds apiece. The Demon Deacons, who are receiving votes in both national polls, were also near-perfect at the charity stripe, making 94.1 percent (16-of-17) from the line, which is an all-time Rupp Arena opponent best.
The Deacs shot only 30.4 percent (17-of-56) from the field as the UK defense forced 16 Wake Forest turnovers, resulting in 18 Kentucky points. The Demon Deacons made an all-time Rupp Arena record 11 three-pointers in the game (11-for-28). The game marked the first meeting between the two schools. The Wildcats improve to 14-4 all-time in games played in Rupp Arena, 2-0 this season.
Kentucky returns to action on Sunday when it plays host to St. Francis (Pa.). Tip off is set for 2 p.m. in Memorial Coliseum, and the game will be carried live on WLXG 1300 AM with Chris Cross. Tickets are $5 for adults and $2 for children ages 18 and under. UK students, faculty and staff are admitted free with valid identification and may be purchased online at ukathletics.com, in person at the athletics ticket office in Memorial Coliseum or by phone at 859-257-1818 or 1-800-927-CATS.
