UK Hoops Drops Back-And-Forth Affair to Vanderbilt

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky women’s basketball team suffered its second home loss of the season on Thursday night, dropping a 71-69 decision to the Vanderbilt Commodores in front of over 5,000 fans at Memorial Coliseum. 

With the loss, No. 12 Kentucky drops to 15-4 overall and 4-4 in the Southeastern Conference. The Commodores improve to 14-6 overall on the season and a winning record of 4-3 within the SEC. The win for Vanderbilt is its first over a ranked team all season. 

Christa Reed was the leading scorer for the Commodores, with 19 points. Rebekah Dalhman also added in 18 points to go along with three rebounds and two assists. Makayla Epps led Kentucky on the board with 25 points. 

The story of the game, which featured six ties and 11 lead changes, was the 3-point shooting of VU, who went 10-of-24 from behind the 3-point arc, with Reed making five of the nine that she took.

Vanderbilt’s win marks the first loss to an unranked team at home for Kentucky since a 99-96 loss to Dayton in the second round of last year’s NCAA Tournament. The win by VU snapped a nine-game losing streak to Kentucky dating back to Feb. 14, 2010. 

Kentucky will travel to Gainesville, Fla., on Sunday to take on the Florida Gators (16-4, 4-3 SEC). The game will start at 1 p.m. ET and be shown live on the SEC Network, ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.

For the latest on the Kentucky women’s basketball team, follow @UKHoopCats on Twitter and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.