Challenging Road Trip Continues Sunday at No. 2 Mississippi State
LEXINGTON, Ky. – On the heels of a hard-fought game at No. 15 Missouri on Thursday where the Wildcats battled back from a 16-point deficit to make it a one-possession game with under a minute to play, the University of Kentucky women’s basketball team stays on the road this weekend as it travels to face second-ranked and undefeated Mississippi State on Sunday at 2 p.m. ET inside Humphrey Coliseum.
The game will be broadcast live on the SEC Network with Brenda VanLengen and Mike Thibault on the call. The action can also be seen through WatchESPN on computers, smartphones or tablets. Darren Headrick, in his first year with the program, will be calling the game on the UK Sports Radio Network. Fans in Lexington can hear Headrick’s call on 630AM WLAP. Live stats and free audio will be available online at ukathletics.com.
Kentucky (12-13, 4-7 Southeastern Conference) feel just short in its come-from-behind, upset bid at No. 15 Missouri on Thursday. The Wildcats trailed by as many as 16 in the second quarter but after making some adjustments at halftime, UK outscored the Tigers 46-42 in the second half and had the lead cut to one possession with under a minute to go. Missouri’s Sophie Cunningham, who led all scorers with 29 points, going 8-of-10 from the field, 5-of-7 from 3 and 8-of-10 from 3, hit two free throws under 10 seconds to seal the final score, 83-78.
 |
||
| Kentucky at No. 2 Mississippi State | ||
|---|---|---|
|
Sunday, Feb. 11 – 2 p.m. ET |
||
| Coverage | ||
|
TV: ESPNU |
Three Wildcats scored in double figures in the game with junior guard Taylor Murray leading the way with 23 points adding six rebounds, four assists and three steals. Fellow junior guard Maci Morris scored 22 points with two rebounds and went 3-of-5 from long range. Freshman post Dorie Harrison scored 12 points in the game with four rebounds, going 6-of-7 from the field. The Wildcats shot 50.0 percent from the field but allowed Missouri to shoot 55.3 percent from the field, including 10-of-21 from 3. UK won the battle in the paint 26-20, points off turnovers 19-13, fast-break points 6-0 and bench points 20-4. The Tigers had 17 second-chance points to UK’s 12.
UK is in the middle of a difficult stretch against quality opponents. The Wildcats will end the regular season with four of their final six games on the road, of those, four are against top-15 ranked teams. The stretch started at No. 15 Missouri and continues Sunday at No. 2 Mississippi State. Next week, UK plays host to Arkansas on Thursday and at No. 7 South Carolina on Sunday, before ending the final week at Ole Miss and vs Mississippi State in Lexington for the regular-season finale. So far this season, UK is 0-7 against ranked opponents.
Mississippi State enters the weekend with a 25-0 record, including a 11-0 mark in conference play and 13-0 record at home. The Bulldogs are currently ranked second in both the Associated Press Top 25 and USA Today/Coaches Top 25. The Bulldogs are also coming through a difficult stretch that saw them play at highly ranked Missouri last Thursday before a Big Monday showdown with top-10 ranked South Carolina on Monday. State won both games, defeating the Tigers, 57-53, before an impressive 67-53 victory over the Gamecocks. The win at Missouri was the smallest margin of victory for the Bulldogs in conference play.
The Bulldogs are averaging 83.7 points per game this year while limiting teams to just 55.2 points per game. MSU is hitting 47.4 percent from the field, 38.3 percent from 3 and out-rebounding teams by 6.5 rebounds per game. Senior guard Victoria Vivians is leading the team in scoring at 19.5 points per game, adding 5.6 rebounds per game and 46 assists. Junior post Teaira McCowan is averaging 19.0 points per game and 13.2 rebounds per game with 48 blocks. McCowan is hitting 61.8 percent from the field this season and 59.9 percent from the free-throw line.
Kentucky leads the all-time series in games played against Mississippi State, 27-17, including a 10-8 record in games played in Starkville. The Wildcats have won 11 straight games in the series, including 13 of the last 15 meetings. Three of the last five meetings have gone to overtime. UK’s last lost to the Bulldogs was Jan. 18, 2009 in Lexington, 52-45. Kentucky has had great success under Matthew Mitchell, a 1995 graduate of Mississippi State, inside Humphrey Coliseum as the Wildcats have not lost in the building under Mitchell’s guidance sitting 5-0. UK’s last lost to Mississippi State in Starkville was a 72-59 loss on Jan. 20, 2005. Mitchell is 12-1 against his alma mater as UK’s head coach.
Last year, the two teams met in Lexington on Senior Night in one of the more memorable wins in recent program history for the Wildcats, who took down No. 2 Mississippi State, 78-75 in overtime. It was senior guard Makayla Epps who scored on an offensive rebound to put the Wildcats on top 77-75 with seconds remaining. After the Bulldogs turned the ball over on the ensuing possession, UK made one of two free throws to seal the win. Fellow senior Evelyn Akhator had 27 points with 16 rebounds for UK while Epps ended with 22 points and five assists.
For more information on the Kentucky women’s basketball team, visit UKathletics.com or follow @KentuckyWBB on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, or Kentucky Women’s Basketball on Facebook.
Kentucky WBB Pre-Mississippi State News Conference
Joe Craft Center – Lexington, Ky.
Friday, Feb. 9, 2018
Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening Statement …
“Well, big challenge ahead with Mississippi State on Sunday. What a fantastic season they’re having and off to a great start, having a great SEC season. Tough, tough team, playing at a high level. So, we’ll have to work hard today and tomorrow and see if we can just have excellent preparation. It’s going to be so important. Got to be able to take care of the basketball and find some way to rebound. They’re a powerful rebounding team too. So, we’ll work hard, try to prepare for what would be a great victory for us.”
On if the team is where he wants them to be defensively …
“Well, I think everybody’s working to try to improve. We’re certainly not where I would like to be, but we are getting better. Last night we were able to make an in-game adjustment to try to slow Missouri down a little bit. Wish we’d had that going into the game. Wish we didn’t have to make an adjustment, but at least we were able to. So, if you think about some of the earlier games that just sort of turned into routes and were routes, we could not adjust and improve through the course of the game. So, last night Missouri was relying on tough, physical, veteran players. One of the players I was so impressed with was Jordan Frericks. She’s a fifth-year senior down there against our three freshmen that really played hard last night, got some valuable experience, but not exactly ready to do everything the way we want them to do it, but we’re working at it. Trying to get better. We need to be able to go from zone to man. We need to show people multiple looks with this particular team. We can’t just do it one way. So, that’s difficult for these kids too, but they’re getting better at it and working hard at it and we’ll just keep trying to improve.”
On Tatyana Wyatt looking more comfortable against Missouri …
“Yeah. She’s really, really had a tough road there missing all those games with the concussion. Do feel like that is a process to try to get back into some rhythm and you’ve seen her grow every day. I’ve been really impressed with her practices over the last four or five opportunities she’s had and the thing about our team, everybody wants to do well. They want to win. They want to get better. You just can’t believe the energy and the enthusiasm they come out with every day. Real proud of that. We just got to hang in here and just keep getting better. But Tot wants to do well, wants to have a positive impact on the team and I thought she took a step forward last night.”
On the future outlook for this group of freshmen …
“Yeah, I think last night they were in there against some grownups last night. I’m telling you, they were big-time veteran players that I don’t know if you’re going to see a more hard-nosed opponent from just a physical standpoint one through five. There’s some physical players, but those freshmen really had to play against some tough kids last night. I thought it was a great experience for them and I thought they responded well. They didn’t do everything exactly the right way, but you know, all three of them that were in there last night got really valuable experience. Gonna be good players.”
