Junior guard Samantha Mahoney (Detroit) scored a game-high 19 points and junior center Sarah Elliott (McKee, Ky.) added 16 as Kentucky held off a late South Carolina charge to post a 59-55 Southeastern Conference opening win over the Gamecocks Thursday. The Cats, who won their eighth consecutive game, played in front of a season-high 6,010 in Memorial Coliseum.
In a match-up between two of the league?s top defensive teams, the Wildcats (12-3, 1-0 SEC) and Gamecocks were nearly even in every statistical category. Kentucky, which has now won five of its last eight league openers, led the entire game and held a 10-point lead (55-45) with 1:51 remaining before the Gamecocks began a late rally.
?I?m just glad to get our first SEC win behind us,? UK Coach Mickie DeMoss said. ?To open up the conference season with a win is always a good thing. I thought it was a very hard-fought game, pretty much a defensive battle on both ends of the floor and we were just fortunate enough to pull it out in the end. South Carolina came out in the second half and did a better job on the offensive end and we just didn?t seem to get as many good looks in the second half on offense. Our defense held strong and our rebounding held strong.?
South Carolina (10-5, 0-1 SEC) fought to the very end by scoring five consecutive points to pull within five, 55-50, with 59 seconds remaining in the game. After a pair of free-throws by senior guard Jenny Pfeiffer (North Vernon, Ind.), a three-pointer by USC?s Brionna Dickerson brought Carolina as close as four points, 57-53, with 13 seconds left. A pair of clutch charity shots by Mahoney allowed UK to hang on for the win.
?I thought they got a lot more aggressive in the passing lanes, they were denying the entry passes and then denying ball reversal which busted up our plays a little bit,? DeMoss said. ?We tried to play out of it and they just took us out of some things we wanted to run in the second half by getting into our passing lanes.?
Mahoney?s 19 points, 14 scored in the first half, came on 6-of-14 shooting from the floor and 6-of-8 from the free-throw line. She notched double figures for the 51st time in her career. Elliott?s 19 points helped her reached the 900-career point plateau as she now has 902 points as a Wildcat.
Senior forward/center Jennifer Humphrey (Memphis, Tenn.), who played a career high 37 minutes, brought down a game-high 10 rebounds for the Wildcats, who were out-rebounded (41-31) for just the third time this season. It marked the fourth consecutive game with double-figure rebounds for Humphrey. Sophomore point guard Carly Ormerod (Louisville, Ky.) had a career-high eight rebounds to complement three steals in a season-high 38 minutes of action.
The Cats were forced to combat an obvious size disadvantage as the Gamecocks have seven players 6-foot or taller. Free-throws proved to be advantageous for the Wildcats, who connected on 13-of-21 (61.9 pct.) from the charity stripe, while South Carolina was just 3-of-6. Despite shooting just 40 percent from the floor (21-of-52), Kentucky continued its solid defensive play, holding South Carolina to 39.1 percent (25-of-64) from the field. It marked only the sixth time in 15 games the Gamecocks have been held under 40 percent shooting.
The Wildcats broke to a 9-4 advantage to begin the game thanks to four points from Mahoney during that stretch. With Kentucky leading 13-8, back-to-back baskets by the Gamecocks allowed them to whittle their deficit down to one, 13-12. From there, Kentucky outscored South Carolina 20-9 over the remaining 9:00 of the first half to take a 33-21 lead to the locker room. Kentucky held South Carolina without a basket for 3:27 during the run.
The Wildcats went into the locker room ahead 33-21 after shooting 44.4 percent (12-of-27) after limiting the Gamecocks to just 34.5 percent (10-of-29) from the field and scoreless from beyond the arc. Kentucky has allowed 25 points or less in the first half in seven of the last eight games.
The two teams traded baskets for much of the early part of the second half before consecutive baskets by senior guard Nastassia Alcius (Lexington, Ky.) and Elliott put the Wildcats ahead by 13, 46-33, with 10:51 remaining in the game. Kentucky was able to keep its distance before the Gamecocks sparked a late rally.
Lakesha Tolliver led the way for USC with 14 points as one of three Gamecocks averaging double-figure point totals. USC?s leading scorer Iva Sliskovic, who entered the game averaging 10.2 ppg, was held scoreless.
UK now leads the all-time series 23-14 vs. USC and has won four consecutive against the Gamecocks. The teams will meet again this season in Columbia, S.C. on Jan. 28.
Kentucky returns to action Saturday when it travels to Columbus, Ohio, to take on No. 7/8 Ohio State in a game televised nationally by CBS. Tip-off in Value City Arena is slated for noon EST and the game also will be carried live on the Big Blue Sports Network (radio) with Neil Price.
