Kentucky (10-3, 0-1)
vs.
South Carolina (9-4, 0-1)
Sunday, Jan. 8 – 1:00 p.m. ET
– Lexington, Ky.
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– Jan. 6 |
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Television Coverage:
LEXINGTON, Ky. ? Riding the momentum of an overtime win over Bowling Green State on Monday, the Kentucky women?s basketball team returns to Southeastern Conference action Sunday when it plays host to South Carolina. Tip-off in Memorial Coliseum is set for 1 p.m. EST and the game will be broadcast live on the Big Blue Sports Network (radio and television).
The Wildcats (10-3, 0-1 SEC) defeated the BGSU Falcons 66-62 in overtime on Monday. Sophomore guard Samantha Mahoney (Detroit) scored each of her game-high 17 points in the second half, including 12 consecutive points midway through the period. She rallied the Cats to the victory and snapped UK?s two-game losing streak.
?We are looking forward to playing South Carolina on Sunday,? UK Coach Mickie DeMoss said. ?They are a much improved team. South Carolina is much improved from the last two years. If I had to attribute one thing to them, their players are older. They have a bulk of juniors on their team. Anytime you go into a game with youth against experience, you have to really play smart. You can?t gamble with the ball a lot and make sound decisions.
?The things we?ve been doing well ? our defense and board play ? really stabilizes us and it gives us a chance in ball games. We?ve spend a lot of time on our offense the last three days with a lot of film work and a lot of offensive work.?
Mahoney leads three Kentucky players averaging double-figure point totals on the season. She is averaging 11.6 ppg, while sophomore center Sarah Elliott (McKee, Ky.) and junior guard Jenny Pfeiffer (North Vernon, Ind.) follow with 10.9 and 10.7 ppg, respectively. Senior forward/center Jennifer Humphrey (Memphis) is the team?s leader on the boards, averaging 8.8 rpg, while sophomore forward/center Eleia Roddy (Columbus, Ohio) follows with 6.9 rpg.
South Carolina enters Sunday?s contest with a 9-4 record after dropping its league opener at home against No. 1 Tennessee, 66-51, on Wednesday night. Prior to the loss, the Gamecocks were riding a seven-game winning streak and receiving votes in the top 25 polls. The Gamecocks are led by junior guard Stacy Booker, who is averaging 9.8 ppg. Junior forward Iva Sliskovic is USC?s leader on the boards, averaging 6.7 rebounds per game. The Gamecocks boast eight players that stand 6-0 or taller and rank as the 15th-tallest team in the nation.
Head Coach Susan Walvius is in her ninth season at the helm of South Carolina?s program. She has compiled a record of 123-121 during her time with USC. She is 221-222 overall in her 16th season of collegiate coaching. The Gamecocks have already surpassed their win total from last season. They went 8-21 in 2004-05.
Kentucky leads the all-time series with the Gamecocks 20-14, including a 12-4 mark when the game is being played in Lexington. Last season, the Wildcats won a 66-50 decision over South Carolina in Memorial Coliseum, while dropping a 60-47 contest to the Gamecocks on the road in Columbia, S.C.
Single-game tickets are available in the ticket office in Memorial Coliseum for all home games, including three remaining games in Rupp Arena (Auburn, Tennessee and Alabama). Single-game general admission tickets are available 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, log on to ukathletics.com or call the UK ticket office at 859-257-1818 or 1-800-928-CATS (2287).
Live audio and statistics for all UK Hoops games this season will be available on ukathletics.com.
Press Conference Quotes – Jan. 6
Head Coach Mickie DeMoss
?They are a much improved team. South Carolina is much improved from the last two years. If I had to attribute one thing to them, their players are older. They have a bulk of juniors on their team. According to coach (Susan) Walvius at media day, she felt really good about her team this year. She said ?we?re just older and more mature.? She?s added a freshman that comes in off the bench, (Demetress) Adams, who is really providing them with a spark and some good minutes. So, they have a bulk of veteran players with the addition of a couple of freshmen that have been able to come in. They play a lot of people and press a lot. We?re going to have to play well, handle pressure and changing defenses. Our offense has to be efficient.?
On having a young team ?
?Anytime you go into it with youth against experience, you have to really play smart. You can?t gamble with the ball a lot and make sound decisions. The things we?ve been doing well ? our defense and board play ? really stabilizes us and it gives us a chance in ball games. We?ve spend a lot of time on our offense the last three days with a lot of film work and a lot of offensive work. I hope it pays off. It seems like its paying off in practice. We?re trying to get smarter, to all get on the same page. When your young, there is a lack of communication sometimes out on the floor. We have people running different offenses, one running one offense and four running another. That makes it tough to score sometimes.?
On what the team has worked on offensively ?
?One thing is better communication and that comes from me and the point guard and people listening to me and the point guard. I tell them there is more to communication than talking. The other half of it is listening and being alert and aware. We?ve really worked on communication. We?ve worked on offensive execution, setting screens, using screens, timing. We?re dribbling too much. We?re over on the wing dribbling when we have a shooter open at the top. We have to take one more dribble and that one dribble allows the defense to recover. It?s little detail things we?re tying to clean up. Now that we see how people are guarding us ? not guarding the high post at all, denying Carly (Ormerod) and (Jenny) Pfeiffer the ball on ball reversal. These are things we?ve learned in this preconference schedule that we?ve put in some things to try and counter that.
On South Carolina?s balanced offense ?
?It?s a matter of we have to guard everybody. It?s not like we can help off and not guard this person. Other teams, where they have three predominate scorers, then we can help and double and things like that. But with South Carolina, you have to play them straight up. They have five players, two are right at 10 and the other three are around nine points. They are playing nine players. You can tell (coach Walvius) is committed to playing those kids. I think that allows them to run and press a lot because she keeps them fresh. Defending them, the thing that encourages me is we?ve got size to match their size. A lot of teams they?ve played had to overcompensate for a lack of size which opened up holes on the perimeter. We can match their size. We just have to have good one-on-one defense.?
