Junior guard Jenny Pfeiffer (N. Vernon, Ind.) scored a team-high 14 points and Nastassia Alcius (Lexington, Ky.) added 12 points and a career-high five steals as the Kentucky women?s basketball team used an impressive second-half rally to hold off Florida International, 71-56, Thursday in Memorial Coliseum. With the victory, the Cats improve to 5-0 for the first time since the 1998-99 season.
Pfeiffer was one of four UK players in double figures. Senior forward/center Jennifer Humphrey (Memphis) also tallied 12 points, while sophomore center Sarah Elliott (McKee, Ky.) followed with 10. Elliott posted a season-high three blocks, marking the ninth time in her career that she has recorded three or more blocks in a game. Humphrey brought down a team-high seven rebounds.
?I told the players, ?we grinded it out.? I didn?t think it was very pretty at times, but we buckled down and did the things we had to do to win the game,? UK Coach Mickie DeMoss said. ?I thought our bench came in and gave us some valuable minutes, particularly on the perimeter. We found a way to beat a good team.?
Kentucky held a slight 36-32 advantage at the half but both teams came out in the second half unable to find the basket as neither scored for nearly three minutes. A free-throw and a basket by FIU at the 16:17 mark cut UK?s advantage to one (38-37) and FIU capped off a 7-0 run to take the lead 39-38 with 15:25 to go.
From there, a raucous Memorial Coliseum crowd of 2,247 helped inspire Kentucky?s defensive intensity and the Golden Panthers missed their next three shots. The Cats, on the other hand, nailed three consecutive baskets, including a clutch three-pointer by Alcius. UK went on to score 13 of the game?s next 15 points and never looked back.
?I thought our defense sparked us a little bit,? DeMoss said. ?We were able to get some deflections and loose balls. We got some transition baskets. Nastassia (Alcius) hit a three during the run that gave us some momentum. But, our spark came from the defensive end.?
Kentucky charted a season-high 15 steals in the game, the most steals for a Kentucky team since recording 19 vs. Morris Brown on Dec. 23, 2002. UK held the Golden Panthers to 35.8 percent (19-of-53) shooting from the field, including a 28.6 percent clip (2-of-7) from beyond the arc. UK has now held 12 consecutive opponents to under .500 percent shooting. The Wildcats shot 45.6 percent (16-of-57) from the floor and made 76.2 percent (16-of-21) of their charity shots.
?They have a lot of depth and a lot of size and certainly did do a good job of wearing us down,? FIU Coach Cindy Russo said. ?Our two key scorers shot terrible tonight and it?s hard to win big ball games when your top scorers don?t hit shots. There was a lot of adversity out there tonight, the crowd and the defense. I didn?t think we handled it well at that point.?
Both teams battled evenly to begin the game, but with the Wildcats holding a narrow 10-8 advantage, DeMoss was forced to move sophomore Samantha Mahoney (Detroit) into the point guard position after freshman Carly Ormerod (Louisville, Ky.) picked up two early fouls. Mahoney scored the game?s next two baskets to spark a 7-0 UK run, putting the Wildcats ahead 17-8 with 10:53 left in the opening period.
After a Pfeiffer jumper at the 9:59 mark, the Golden Panthers battled to within three, 19-16, with 8:32 left in the half. FIU kept chipping away at the UK advantage to pull as close as one point, 24-23, but a three-pointer by Pfeiffer with 4:55 left extended the Cats? advantage to 27-24. Two three-pointers late in the period cut the Cats? lead down to 34-32 and UK entered the locker room ahead 36-32 after shooting 50 percent (14-of-28).
FIU was led by Bouderra?s game-high 19 points, including 7-of-8 free-throws. FIU leading scorer Lasma Jakabsone was held to just five points in 36 minutes.
Kentucky returns to action Tuesday, Dec. 6 when it plays host to North Carolina A&T in the second of three consecutive games in Memorial Coliseum. Tip off is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be carried live on the Big Blue Sports Network (radio) with Neil Price.
Single-game tickets are available in the ticket office in Memorial Coliseum for $5 adults/$2 senior citizens and children ages 18 and under. UK students, faculty and staff are admitted free with valid identification based on availability. For ticket information, call the UK ticket office at 859-257-1818 or 1-800-928-CATS (2287).
