Murray Stepping Up Game When Wildcats Need Her Most
Kentucky guard Taylor Murray suffered through a brutal seven-game stretch over several recent weeks. During the streak, Kentucky’s second-leading scorer failed to reach double figures in points in any of the games. Murray even went scoreless for the first time since her freshman season in the final game of the seven-game stretch.
While some players might have felt sorry for themselves or given up, Murray did just the opposite. She continued to work hard and kept trying to improve.
The hard work seems to have paid off. In the two games since her dreadful streak, Murray has led UK in scoring, including a 23-point effort in the loss at Vanderbilt on Monday night. That’s the most points scored by any Wildcat in a game this season. And with leading scorer Maci Morris battling a knee injury, the team desperately needed Murray to take on a bigger share of the scoring load.
Kentucky head coach Matthew Mitchell has seen a difference in Murray over the last two games.
“I think her mindset and mental approach was better,” Mitchell said. “This (season) has been hard on everybody and everybody’s had different ways of working their way through it.”
During her tough stretch of play, Murray could not seem to get the ball to go in the basket. She hit just 14 of her 56 (25 percent) shot attempts in those seven games. However, she has turned that around by hitting 16 of 27 (59.3 percent) of her field goal attempts in the last two games.
It started last Thursday, as Murray hit eight of 12 shots from the field, scoring 19 points as the Wildcats picked up their first SEC win of the season by winning at Florida 56-53. It continued on Monday, as Murray again made eight field goals on her way to those 23 points. She also added a career-high seven steals in the loss at Vandy.
Mitchell has seen Murray take a different approach in the last two games, especially with Morris out of the lineup.
“(Murray) has really been much better and much more aggressive and understanding that she can score the basketball in different ways besides just getting a speed layup going right,” Mitchell said. “She has handled it much better and scored in different ways over the last two games, and that’s really important.”
Murray and her team will face another big challenge on Sunday, when defending national champion South Carolina visits Lexington to face the Wildcats at Rupp Arena. The 10th-ranked Gamecocks are coming off of a 95-82 win at Vanderbilt on Thursday night.
Morris’ status for Sunday will likely be a game-time decision. With or without her, the Wildcats need Murray to continue to play at her highest level, something she has proven not only the last two games, but throughout her Kentucky career.
