Women's Basketball

KENTUCKY WOMEN’S BASKETBALL POSTGAME NOTES
Kentucky vs. Florida
Memorial Coliseum – Lexington, Ky.
Feb. 19, 2017
Attendance: 6,604

FINAL SCORE: Kentucky 67, Florida 48

  

Team Records and Series Notes

– Kentucky has now won four in a row and is 19-8 overall, 10-4 in the Southeastern Conference. Florida is 13-14, 4-10 in league play. 
– Matthew Mitchell is in his 10th season with Kentucky. Mitchell is now 268-126 overall as a head coach, and 238-97 during his tenure at Kentucky. He is 101-52 in regular-season SEC games.
– Kentucky extended its lead in the overall series to 29-25.
o The Wildcats have won four of the last five in the series.
o UK is 14-10 in games played in Memorial between the two teams.
– The Wildcats return to Memorial Coliseum on Thursday, Feb. 23 for its final home game of the 2016-17 regular season against Mississippi State at 7 p.m. ET. The game, which will serve as senior day, will stream live on SEC Network+ and will also be broadcast live on the UK Sports Network with Neil Price on the call.

Team Notes

– Kentucky used the starting five of Makayla Epps, Evelyn Akhator, Maci Morris, Alyssa Rice and Taylor Murray. 
o UK is now 16-6 this season with that starting-five combination.
– In limiting Florida to 48 points, UK is now 20-2 this season when keeping the opponent under 70 points.
– After Makayla Epps put up the first two points in the game just over a minute into regulation, the Wildcats would never trail in the contest.
– After UK got out to an early 20-12 lead by the end of the first quarter, the Gators outscored Kentucky 15-11 in the second quarter to claw within four at halftime.
– Florida got as close as two with a layup at the beginning of the second half, but Kentucky answered with an 8-0 run and UF got no closer than six for the remainder of the game.
– The Wildcats had their largest lead at 22 with 1:55 left in the game as Jessica Hardin drilled a 3, her first basket since Dec. 29 at Duke.
o Hardin had missed the team’s first 13 conference games due to going through concussion protocol. 
– Led by Taylor Murray’s career-high 11 assists, Kentucky had its second-highest assist total in SEC play this season with 18 dimes overall.
– On 6-of-19 3-point shooting, the Wildcats had at least six made 3s for the third consecutive game.
o Kentucky is 7-1 in conference play this season when they make six or more shots from beyond the arc.
– The two teams were evenly matched in the paint, putting up 32 points apiece inside the paint.
– The Wildcats forced 23 turnovers in the contest, and only committed 15.
o Before today, the Gators were forcing 17.8 turnovers and 9.4 steals per game this season.
o Florida only had four steals in today’s game.
o Kentucky scored 24 points off Florida turnovers. 
– Although the Wildcats only had 13 offensive rebounds, UK scored 25 second-chance points. 
o The 25 second-chance points were a season high for UK. 

Individual Notes

– Evelyn Akhator led the Wildcats in scoring and rebounds with 19 points and nine boards.
o The senior has now led the Wildcats on the boards in 20 of 27 contests.
o She also had three huge steals and two dimes in the game.
– Maci Morris added 15 points on 7-of-14 shooting.
o Morris has scored in double-digits in seven of the last eight games.
o With one 3-pointer in today’s game, the sophomore has made at least one 3 in 22 of 27 games.
– Makayla Epps had a balanced effort with 14 points, three rebounds, three assists and one steal.
o Epps’ 1,664 career points ranks 5th in UK history.
o Her 389 assists comes in at No. 8 in the Kentucky record book as well.
– Jaida Roper scored five points in just 12 minutes of action.
o The freshman went 1-of-1 from beyond the arc in today’s game, and is now 5-of-6 from 3 in the last three games.
– Taylor Murray had a career-high 11 assists in the game, adding four steals and four points. 

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