Rice’s First Double-Double Powers Kentucky Past Marshall
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The Kentucky women’s basketball team continued its perfect start to the 2017-18 season on Sunday afternoon, sparked by Alyssa Rice’s first-career double-double as she had a career-high 19 points and a career-high 10 rebounds in the 69-39 win over Marshall at Memorial Coliseum.
Kentucky scored 20 successive points after Marshall buckets bookended the second quarter to take what was a one-point lead at the start of the second and balloon it into a 16-point lead at halftime. The Wildcats shot 42 percent from the floor in the second quarter and had 10 points and seven rebounds from senior Alyssa Rice at the half.
During the Wildcats 20-0 second quarter run, UK held the Thundering Herd scoreless for 8:31. The run was UK’s largest of the season, passing a 19-0 run set against Gardner Webb on Nov. 12. Offensive rebounding was the statistical story of the first half, as UK outrebounded the Thundering Herd 28-9 overall and 14-1 on the offensive glass.
UK will participate in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge on Thursday night as the Wildcats travel south to face the No. 8/9 Baylor Lady Bears in Waco. Tipoff is at 8 p.m. ET and will be shown live on Fox College Sports. The next home game inside of Memorial Coliseum will be Sunday, Nov. 31 at Noon against Tennessee Tech.
In the third quarter, Marshall closed the gap to as little as 13 points, but a 10-2 run capped off by a Taylor Murray 3-pointer at the buzzer off of a Marshall missed jumper in the lane ended the threat and the Wildcats took a 57-36 lead into the fourth quarter – the largest lead of the game for UK at the time.
Kentucky would only grow the lead in the fourth quarter – as Paige Poffenberger scored a lay-up as time expired for her first set of points in the game, and closed the book on a 69-39 win over Marshall on Sunday afternoon. UK only allowed three Marshall points in the fourth quarter – all free throws – no field goals from the floor. That marked the first time in program history that UK held a team without a made FG in a quarter.
For the latest on the Kentucky women’s basketball team, follow @KentuckyWBB on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, as well as on the web at UKathletics.com.
