Kentucky Women’s Basketball Postgame Notes
No. 16/15 Kentucky vs. Vanderbilt 
Memorial Coliseum – Lexington, Ky.
Thursday, January 3, 2019
 
No. 16/15 Kentucky 77, Vanderbilt 55 – FINAL
 
Team Records and Series Notes

• Kentucky moves to 14-1 on the season while Vanderbilt is now 5-9.   
  • The Wildcats will return to action Sunday at No. 6/7 Mississippi State at 5 p.m. ET in Starkville, Miss.. The game will be televised on the SEC Network while Darren Headrick will have the call on radio on the UK Sports Network.
• Thursday’s game concluded a five-game home stretch for the Wildcats.
• Vanderbilt leads the all-time series in games played against Kentucky 28-25.
  • UK leads the series in games played in Lexington, 13-11.
  • The Wildcats have won 12 of the last 14 meetings while Matthew Mitchell is 13-5 all-time against Vanderbilt.

• UK is now 812-533 all-time in program history.
  • Matthew Mitchell is in his 12th year with the Wildcats and holds a 270-118 record. Mitchell is 300-147 overall in 14 years as a head coach.
  • This was Coach Mitchell’s 300th career win as a head coach.

• The Wildcats hold a 449-156 all-time record in Memorial Coliseum, including a 158-27 mark under Coach Mitchell.
• UK is 18-19 all-time in SEC openers, including 24-13 in SEC home openers.
  • Kentucky is 9-3 in SEC openers under Matthew Mitchell.
• Kentucky is ranked No. 16 in the Associated Press Top 25 and No. 15 in the USA Today/Coaches Top 25.
• Kentucky’s 14-1 start is the second best under Mitchell. The Wildcats started 18-1 in 2012-13.

 
Team Notes

• Kentucky used the starting combination of senior guard Taylor Murray, senior guard Maci Morris, freshman guard Rhyne Howard, sophomore forward KeKe McKinney and sophomore forward Tatyana Wyatt.
  • Kentucky is now 13-1 this season with this starting combination.

• The Wildcats grabbed an eight-point lead early in the game forcing a Vanderbilt time out with 6:03 to go in the first quarter. The Commodores would come out of the break on a 9-2 run to cut UK’s lead to one but Kentucky scored five straight points to end the quarter to grab a 21-15 lead at the end of the first quarter.
• Kentucky started the second quarter with an 11-4 run to grab its biggest lead of the game at 32-19 with 5:45 left in the first half.
  • Overall, after Vanderbilt had cut the lead to one Kentucky finished the first half on a 24-9 run to take a 16-point lead into halftime.
• Both teams shot over 50 percent from the field in the first half with UK going 15-for-29 from the field, while Vanderbilt went 9-of-17. The Wildcats went 4-of-12 from 3 in the first half while Vanderbilt was 0-for-1.
  • UK forced Vandy into 16 turnovers in the first half and scored 16 points off those miscues.
  • Kentucky has scored 40 or more points in the first half of four of its last five games.
• Kentucky forced Vanderbilt into a season-high 29 turnovers and scored 30 points off those miscues.
• UK won the second-chance point battle, 12-4, and had a 27-8 edge in bench points.
• Kentucky limited Vanderbilt to just nine points in the second quarter, which was 18th time this season UK has held an opponent to 10 points or less in a quarter.
• UK scored 20 or more points in two quarters during the game and have now scored 20 or more points in 33 of its 60 quarters played this season.

 
Player Notes

• Senior guard Maci Morris scored 14 points on 5-of-10 shooting including four 3-pointers.

  • Morris now has 1,448 career points, which ranks 14th most in program history. She needs one more point to tie Jennifer O’Neill for 13th all-time in school history in points scored.
  • Morris has 218 career 3-pointers made which ranks second in program history. She needs 53 more 3s to tie Sara Potts for most all-time.
  • Morris has hit at least one 3-pointer in 28 straight games.
• Senior guard Taylor Murray scored seven points with five rebounds and five assists in the game.
  • Murray now has 1,165 career points and ranks 26th all-time in points scored. She needs five more points to tie Jocelyn Mills for 25th all-time.
  • Murray has 390 career assists which ranks ninth most in program history. She needs 110 more to tie Rita Adams for eighth.   

• Freshman guard Rhyne Howard scored 16 points with four rebounds and seven assists.

  • Howard had led Kentucky in scoring eight times this season.
  • Howard’s seven assists were a career high and she has led UK in assists twice this season.
  • This was the 11th time this season that Howard has scored 15 or more points in a game.
• Junior guard Jaida Roper scored eight points with five assists.
• Freshman guard Blair Green scored nine points with two rebounds and two steals in the second half.
• Sophomore forward KeKe McKinney scored nine points with three rebounds.