No. 13 Kentucky Celebrates National Girls and Women in Sports Day Sunday vs. Florida
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 13 University of Kentucky women’s basketball team will celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day on Sunday, Feb. 2 when they play host to Florida at 1 p.m. ET inside historic Memorial Coliseum. All current female student-athletes along with Kentucky women’s basketball alumnae in attendance will be honored during the game.
Children can get into the game free of charge by wearing a sports jersey of any kind Sunday while parents can purchase general admission tickets for just $8. Ticket stubs from Friday’s Kentucky gymnastics meet vs. Florida can also be used for free general admission seating Sunday. Young fans are encouraged to take advantage of the Kid Zone pregame with games, poster making stations, coloring stations and more. Senior forward Ogechi Anyagaligbo is scheduled to sign autographs on the concourse following the game.
The game vs. Florida will be broadcast on SEC Network with Brenda VanLengen and Andraya Carter on the call. The action can also be seen through WatchESPN on computers, smartphones or tablets. Darren Headrick will have the call on the UK Sports Network on 630AM WLAP in Lexington. Live stats and free live audio will be available online at UKathletics.com.
Spectator parking is located in all E-lots surrounding Memorial Coliseum and are off control 3 hours prior to tip. Additionally, the South Limestone Garage (PS#5) and the Rose Street Garage (PS#2) are available 2 hours prior to tip. The Bill Gatton Student Center is available as a pay-to-park option. Availability is based on the Gatton Student Center Event Schedule.
Parking is prohibited in any R (Residential) lots. Vehicles parking in R lots without a proper permit, along yellow curbs, grass spaces, or other non-specified and unapproved areas may be subject to ticket and/or tow. Disabled spectator parking is available with a valid, state issues disabled hangtag in the E lot North of the Craft Center. These spaces are available on a first-come, first-served basis until full.
Shuttles are available beginning 2 hours prior to tip off and pick up and drop off near the South Limestone Garage (PS#5) and the High Street Lot. Shuttles will start back up after halftime to return guests to their parking areas, the shuttle will discontinue service 1-hour post-game.
Playing without its leading scorer for the first time this year, Kentucky (17-3, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) put together an impressive overall team performance in its 62-47 win at Missouri on Thursday. UK shot 45.5 percent from the field – its second-best field-goal percentage in a road game this season – while forcing Missouri into 20 turnovers and scoring 21 points off those miscues. Senior guard Amanda Paschal put together a career-high 18 points with five rebounds and three assists going 8-of-14 from the field. Junior guard Chasity Patterson scored 12 points – including 10 in the second quarter – while sophomore Blair Green scored 11 points and led UK in rebounding for the first time in her career with seven boards. UK’s defense was tough in the first half, keeping Missouri without a field goal for over 12 minutes of play.
Sophomore guard Rhyne Howard, who leads UK with 23.2 points per game and 6.3 rebounds per game, is out until mid-February with a fractured finger in her left hand. Senior guard Sabrina Haines is averaging 10.9 points per game with 4.3 rebounds per game and is 40-for-96 from long range this season, while Patterson is averaging 9.4 points per game and has 17 steals in nine games played. Senior guard Jaida Roper is averaging 7.0 points per game and leads UK in assists with 65 while Paschal is averaging 6.0 points per game and is second in assists with 64. Junior posts KeKe McKinney and Tatyana Wyatt are averaging 6.8 points and 5.1 points, respectively.
Freshman guard Lavender Briggs is averaging a team-best 14.0 points per game with 6.1 rebounds per game and a team-high 27 made 3s. Redshirt junior guard Kiara Smith is averaging 12.8 points per game with a team-high 68 assists while redshirt senior forward Zada Williams is averaging 10.2 points per game and leads the team with 7.0 rebounds per game. As a team, the Gators are averaging 62.5 points per game, hitting 40.4 percent from the field and 28.8 percent from 3.
Kentucky and Florida will meet for the 58th time in program history Sunday with UK leading the all-time series 32-25. The Wildcats hold a 16-10 mark in games played in Lexington.
The Wildcats have won five straight games in the series and won three straight at home. The Gators’ last win in Lexington was a 83-73 decision on Jan. 5, 2014. Matthew Mitchell is 14-4 against the Gators as a head coach at Kentucky.
The two teams have already met once this season with UK winning 65-45 on Jan. 12 in Gainesville. Patterson scored a career-high 20 points, including 13 in the first half when the Wildcats were struggling to score hitting two big 3s late in the second quarter to push UK into a 28-23 halftime lead it would not relinquish. Haines had 12 points hitting two 3s while Howard led UK with 22 – scoring 18 points in the second half. The UK defense was superb in the game, limiting Florida to a then-season-low 45 points. UK went just 22-of-70 from the field in the game and 6-of-24 from 3, but forced 25 turnovers and had 31 points off those miscues to secure the win.
For more information on the Kentucky women’s basketball team, visit UKathletics.com or follow @KentuckyWBB on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
KENTUCKY WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
PRE-FLORIDA NEWS CONFERENCE
FRIDAY, JAN. 31, 2020
JOE CRAFT CENTER – LEXINGTON, KY.
Kentucky Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening Statement …
“A big challenge ahead for us on Sunday vs. Florida. We are going to have to work hard to get prepared. We would love a big crowd on Sunday. It is National Girls and Women in Sports Day and so we are celebrating that. Any young kid that is out there and wants to come to the game and is wearing any jersey that you want to wear from any sport you get in free. We would love for all the kids in our community to come out and celebrate National Girls and Women in Sports Day. We have got a great, great bunch of young women playing basketball at Kentucky and I think they are an inspiration for our community. We are also going to be hosting our alumni on Sunday, so a lot of great former Wildcats will be in Memorial Coliseum on Sunday afternoon. It is a big day for us and obviously the focal point for us will be the Gators and seeing if they can win.”
On how the team performed last night without Rhyne Howard …
“We were obviously concerned about losing our leading scorer and the other thing about Rhyne is that she is such a huge impact in all areas. We have all visited a bunch about how impactful she is. She is often times our team’s leading rebounder, often times our top shot blocker and best defensive player. It was more than just losing offensive production. So we tried to make sure that everybody understood Tuesday morning that we did not have a lot of time to dwell on it or thank about it. We played Monday night and knew pretty certain after the game that she would not play Thursday night, we didn’t know what the future would hold but we had to turn around Tuesday morning and get to work. We just embraced it as a tremendous opportunity for everyone on the team and every coach on the staff and everybody involved with getting ready to play at Missouri. We had to look at ourselves and make up for her absence. I thought the practices were really good and everybody embraced the opportunity and I sure had high hopes for last night but did not have any guarantees or know exactly what we would do. I just thought that they made an A+ and passed it with flying colors. I thought they really got after it on the defensive end and I wanted them to really hustle in that area. We were trying to win the boards and win the transition game and win the turnover battle and we won two out of three or those areas and were aggressive on the boards. We didn’t get quite enough offensive rebounds to win that stat in the game, but it was a really good performance in what was a challenging situation. We have another one here. We were able to beat Florida down there but you take away Rhyne’s contribution in the game and it looks like a pretty even game there. We have to do a good job these next couple of days and see if we can prepare. It is always tough to play your opponent the next time because they figure out some things against you and you figure out some things about them and who can make the adjustments to win the next one. Happy about last night but we have to keep on going and stay focused and see if we can outhustle Florida on Sunday.”
On Amanda Paschal …
“As we gathered Monday night in the offense and were presented with this challenge we started writing down everybody on the team and where we needed a little extra from everybody and evaluate that and talk our way through that Monday night. Amanda right away for me was one of those people that could step up because she just does what she is supposed to do. She is so selfless and such an energy player and hustle player for us and just diving on the floor for loose balls and taking charges and making baskets when needed but never trying to dominate the ball. She is a person who at one point in her career was a real scorer. She was a big-time scorer her freshman year at Gulf Coast College when they won the national championship. She was their go-to player down the stretch when they won a national championship. So she knows what it feels like to have the ball and need to do something at a big moment. I just talked to her about that. What I said was, ‘I want you to take it back to the old days when it was your role,’ and she was fantastic last night. She played with great poise and here is the other thing. People kept passing up wide open 3s to get into the paint and create a better opportunity and we just kept working and were able to finally break down the defense a couple of times and shoot the ball around the goal instead of getting lulled into this 3-point contest with Missouri. I was so impressed with Amanda and the team. I thought Sabrina Haines passed up some open shots last night to get Amanda a look. I thought Jaida Roper passed up some shots to create Blair Green a look. I thought we really played in a cohesive way last night and we need somebody to step up and take the reins and Amanda did a great job of that.”
On Rhyne’s timetable to return …
“There is no exact science on it but it is a fractured finger and everybody heals a little differently. It will not be operated on and we will allow the bone to heal. The best guess we have right now and what we are saying is mid-February and not sure exactly what game but as of today it is not a season ender and we feel very fortunate for that. We are looking around that four week mark to see if we can get her back. We are optimistic about that. The hand surgeon has looked at it and feels like that is a reasonable time table for us to put out there. We do not know exactly how everything will happen but we do know how important she is not only to our team but she has really captivated the Big Blue Nation and there is so much affection for her. We are not going to try to play any tricks or anything, we are going to try to keep everybody up to day and know how great of a season she is having and how much interest people have. We are going to keep everybody up to date, but that is the best we know right now.”
On NCAA Tournament seeding …
“It is an interesting exercise to go through depending on what kind of team you have. There have been years where we have been really confident we had among the most talented teams and then there were years we had a real gritty team that could over achieve. We have always been in that top four for the last decade or so but we have got there different ways whether we won the championship or able to get into that fourth seed, we have found a way more times than not to be there. It kind of depends on the team that we have. This one is very simple right now because the only way we can take care of anything is winning games. With Rhyne’s absence it puts everyone on high alert with a high sense or awareness and it reduces our margin for error so we have to be really focused and have great practices and come out and compete really hard. I am really not looking beyond Sunday. The best thing for our team right now is if we could get a win on Sunday, that improves our position for seeding. It is very competitive right now in our conference and that is how we have always done it. If we could take care of business in our conference then we have always been in pretty good shape on the national scene. I am super proud of the team for handling the first eight games the way that we have with five of eight on the road and where we are right now. I am excited about what we have accomplished. We got an opportunity now where we have to get into the second half and keep grinding and keep going and January we finished well with a win and got another tough month ahead in February and we have to work hard and stay focused on how we can win games and I do feel good about the formula the team has to focus on to win. If we can keep hammering away at that, all the great stuff at the end of the season will materialize and we will be excited to see that happen.”
