The Kentucky women’s basketball team mounted another fourth-quarter rally on Sunday, but this one came up just short, as the Wildcats fell to LSU 72-70 in SEC action at Rupp Arena.
Kentucky (12-12, 4-6 SEC) had used big fourth quarters to win games over Alabama and Auburn in the last two weeks, and Sunday’s game appeared to be following a similar pattern. The Wildcats cut a 10-point fourth quarter deficit to one, 71-70, with 18 seconds left. After LSU hit one of two at the line with 16 seconds remaining, the Wildcats had a final possession with a chance to tie or win. But Maci Morris’ shot from the right side rimmed out, giving the Tigers a hard-fought win.
Morris led the Wildcats with 17 points while Taylor Murray added 16 points and six assists. KeKe McKinney and Amanda Paschal each scored 10 points for the Wildcats.
LSU (15-6, 7-3) took advantage of its superior height, winning the battle of the boards 35-23, including an 18-5 margin on the offensive glass. LSU was able to turn those 18 offensive boards into 15 second chance points, compared with just four such points for Kentucky. The Tigers forced the Wildcats into 15 turnovers and scored 21 points off of those miscues, while Kentucky forced 12 LSU turnovers, turning those into 13 points.
Kentucky missed its first nine shots from the floor in the game, allowing LSU to build an early 6-0 lead. In fact, Kentucky’s first points of the game didn’t come until 3:46 left in the first quarter, when Dorie Harrison converted an old fashioned three-point play to cut the LSU lead to 6-3. The Wildcats’ shooting woes continued throughout the period, as Kentucky made just two of its 15 attempts (13.3 percent) in the game’s first ten minutes. LSU finished the period on an 8-0 run and held a 16-5 lead at the end of the quarter.
In the second period, Kentucky hit its first eight shots from the floor, but LSU was able to take extend its lead to by taking advantage of five Wildcat turnovers. LSU led 27-15 before Kentucky mounted a 7-2 run to cut the lead to 29-22 with 3:01 left in the half. However, the Tigers responded by outscoring UK 9-4 to end the half, taking a 38-26 lead into the break.
Early in the third period, Kentucky got five straight points from senior Makenzie Cann to cut the LSU lead to 40-31. Kentucky eventually cut the lead to eight, 44-36 on a three-pointer by McKinney. However, LSU responded by scoring the next seven points to stretch the advantage to 51-36 with 1:18 left in the period. But Kentucky closed strong, scoring seven consecutive points to end the period, cutting the LSU lead to 51-43 after three quarters.
In the fourth period, Kentucky chipped away at the LSU advantage, setting the stage for the final sequence, where Morris’ shot missed and the rally came up just short.
Kentucky returns to action on Sunday, as the Wildcats visit Missouri in Columbia. Tipoff is set for 9 p.m. ET and the game can be seen on the SEC Network.
POST GAMENOTES:
Opening Statement …
“Well, that was a disappointing loss today, because we were out-hustled, so you have to give LSU the credit for that. Played a lot harder than we did, look like they wanted the game a little bit more than we did and that is a bitter pill to swallow looking at where we’re at in our season in trying to make some progress forward. I’m a little bit disappointed today because the game came down to effort and we didn’t give everything that we had.”
On how much the 0-8 shooting start contributing to the play today …
“It’s entirely possible. If you want to use that as an excuse. LSU wasn’t setting the world on fire either, but they were stilling hustling and it was 6-0 (LSU lead). We were getting outrebounded and outhustled from the jump ball. On the boards, it was just a day where there was no mystery to this game. They are a good team and strong, big and have some great athletes and your effort had to exceed there and we didn’t get that done which makes it very disappointing.”
On the last play and getting Maci a shot …
“When she missed that one, what I was hoping was that Taylor could go to the bucket, but I will have to look and see where that was, but we kind of kicked it over flat. What we wanted is if she turned the corner and laid it up it’s on the attack. If she couldn’t do that, get into a dribble hand-off so Amanda is now going off the attack. We kind of dribbled it in, kicked it into a standing-still to Amanda. So, it wasn’t that great of a look. Somehow some way we got in that position. They (LSU) missed some free-throws, we battled hard offensively for three quarters, had some good moments there. But just needed to play harder, we could have won it.”
On team improvement from last month …
“That’s one positive because I saw some people reverting back to some of the times where we would get steamrolled there or go back to our ourselves. I was really proud of that, particularly Taylor Murray. I thought she was on the brink. That was a rough play, I don’t know what happened over there when she got knocked down, that run hurt a little bit. I thought she was about to maybe check out or go low energy on us, but she didn’t. She got it back going. That was a real positive development. The progress they’ve made is what makes the disappointment so great today. It was definitely a game they could have won and should have won. So, we need to build on that, we’re definitely a lot better than we were a month and a half ago. We need to come back tough and see if we can strengthen our minds in what will be a very physical and tough game Thursday night. I was proud of the players for hanging in and bringing it back and trying to give them a chance to win.”
UK Student-Athletes
#4 Maci Morris, G
On the potential game-tying jumper …
“Yeah, Amanda (and I) were doing dribble hand off, and a girl was coming to steal in front of me, so I went behind my back and I was just trying to get my feet set as quick as possible to get the shot off and they were coming at me, but it was short.”
#24 Taylor Murray, G
On Coach Mitchell saying UK didn’t come out with energy to start the game …
“Yeah, it’s very disappointing. One thing we’ve been trying to do in the past couple of games is come out with a lot of energy, and we just didn’t have that in the first quarter. Once you do that, you have to make up for all that, so we need to do a better job coming up and sticking with that energy and playing like we did in the third and fourth quarter.”
LSU Head Coach Nikki Fargas
Opening statement …
“First half, obviously we got the nod. Second half, I’d give the nod to them. But I loved the fight in our kids to be able to come on the road in a very exciting environment of fans and be able to come away with a win.”
On the importance of offensive rebounding …
“Well, we’ve been stressing it quite a bit. We have game goals and one of them is offensive rebounding where we want to at least clear 40 percent of our misses and that’s been key for us. Now I don’t like the fact that we miss a lot of shots on the first attempt, but to have our guards get on the glass. Ayana Mitchell has been unbelievable on the boards and to keep her on the glass for us gives us those second and third opportunities, gives her some put-backs. Those are just energy plays for us so that’s always been a key for us.”
On the Maci Morris shot at the end …
“It looked good. We had a couple of kids around her. They were running the dribble handoff action and she got a clean catch off her penetration and I thought we gambled on that, and I didn’t like the fact that we gambled and gave her that look. But it takes a lot of guts, a lot of courage for a player to step up and try to make that shot for their team and it falls short, but she’s a very good basketball player. She did a nice job of getting her team back in the game and I know she’s going to be able to knock that shot down in the near future. Just hope that it’s not against LSU.”
On what was working in the first quarter and what changed in the fourth quarter …
“It’s scouting report defense. I felt like we came here focused, we were locked in on how we wanted to guard them and what we wanted to do on certain players. And then as the game went on, and especially in the second half, I thought we got away from our scouting report defense and you have to be in tune with that, especially when you’re playing very good basketball players like Morris. (Taylor) Murray, we allowed her to just have her will off the dribble penetration. So, those to me were the keys to why we were able to get going and again that’s the sign of a very good team. Coach Mitchell, he has his team right there about to turn the corner and we were able to just come away and get a W here.”
LSU Student-Athletes
#11 Raigyne Louis, G
On what is was like playing in the fourth quarter as Kentucky started to get closer …
“We’ve got to buckle down on defense. They started knocking down three’s and Murray started attacking us off the dribble, which she is really good at, and they started knocking down shots. We weren’t doing well with matching up with who we had. I think we lost focus. So, just buckle down on defense.
On what it says about their team to still win despite the defensive problems …
“We knocked down free throws when we needed to and we got a defensive stop that we needed to on No. 4 (Maci Morris). She was ready to hit another one on us. That last possession we were focused and we had who we had, and we switched when we needed to switch. We did a great job at that at the end.”
On how important rebounding was in this game …
“Very important. I want to give the credit Ayana Mitchell. She had 10-plus rebounds for the past three or four games for us. She had key offensive rebounds and put-backs for us during the game as well. It’s very key. We got a win over Georgia and Tennessee by outrebounding people and we have to continue to do that.”
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Evan Crane
