LEXINGTON, Ky. – Fresh off a nine-point win over Oakland in the opening round of the Women?s National Invitation Tournament, the Kentucky women?s basketball team travels to Muncie, Ind., on Monday to meet first-time opponent Ball State. Tip-off in the second round match-up in Worthen Arena is set for 7 p.m. EDT and the game will be carried live on the Big Blue Sports Network (radio) with Neil Price.
Single-game general admission tickets $7 for adults and $4 for high school age and younger. All seats are general admission seating and first come, first serve. Tickets can be purchased by calling 1-888-BSU-TICKETS.
The Wildcats (19-13), who have won 18 or more games for the third consecutive season, are coming off a 65-56 win over a stingy Golden Grizzlies team last Thursday. Senior guard Jenny Pfeiffer (North Vernon, Ind.), who will be making a final return to her home state on Monday, scored a game-high 21 points in the first round contest, including tying a season-high with five three-pointers. Kentucky fought off several late Oakland charges to secure the victory.
Junior All-SEC center Sarah Elliott (McKee, Ky.) leads the Wildcats in scoring, averaging 13.5 ppg, while fellow junior and All-SEC second team member Samantha Mahoney (Detroit) follows with 12.3 ppg. Senior forward/center Jennifer Humphrey (Memphis, Tenn.), an AP All-SEC honorable mention selection, is the squad?s leading rebounder with 10.4 rpg. Her rebounding average is second in the league and 19th in the nation. She is on track to break the school record for most rebounds by a senior in a single season. She needs just five boards to break Valerie Still?s record of 336.
Monday?s game marks the first meeting between Kentucky and Ball State. The Wildcats are 22-4 all-time vs. teams in the current alignment of the Cardinals? Mid-American Conference. UK?s last meeting with a team from the MAC came on Jan. 2, 2006, when it defeated Bowling Green State, 66-62 in overtime. The Cats faced a MAC team the last time they participated in the WNIT, beating league-member Eastern Michigan 79-68 in the 2005 first round.
Ball State (24-6), which won the Mid-American Conference West Division title, claimed the league?s automatic bid to the WNIT and received a first-round bye. The Cardinals? 24 wins are tied for the most in a single-season in program history. BSU, which has won five of its last six games, is making its third appearance in the WNIT and its first since the 2003 campaign.
Junior guard Julie Demuth, a first-team All-MAC selection, leads four Ball State players averaging double-figure point totals with 15.3 ppg. She also is the squad?s leading rebounder with 8.9 boards per game. Senior guard Kelsey Corbin follows with 11.9 ppg and leads the team with 4.5 assists per game. Corbin, an honorable mention All-MAC selection, is just the fourth player in Ball State history to dish out 400 or more assists in a career.
Kentucky, making its school-record third consecutive postseason appearance, is participating in its fourth WNIT in school history. The Wildcats are 9-2 all-time in the WNIT and last competed in the tournament in 2005, when they advanced to the semifinal round before falling to West Virginia in double overtime.
Should Kentucky advance, it would play the winner of the Arkansas State vs. Wisconsin game. Date and location for that game are to be determined.
