LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 14 University of Kentucky women’s basketball team will conclude what has been a successful seven-game homestand Sunday when it faces in-state rival No. 7 Louisville for a 1 p.m. ET tip inside Rupp Arena. Kentucky fans are encouraged to wear blue to the game and free pom poms will be given out while supplies last.
Fans can purchase $3 tickets for the game by using the promo code UKWBB19 at UKathletics.com/tickets. UK students get into all Kentucky women’s basketball games free of charge with a valid UK Student ID, while UK faculty and staff get in free plus up to three guests with a valid UK ID. UK students that check into the event with a completed BBN Rewards profile will receive a chance to win $10,000.
Beth Mowins, Debbie Antonelli and Brooke Weisbrod will have the call on ESPN. 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.
Construction along the back of Rupp Arena, near the Jefferson Street bridge, has eliminated a majority of parking in the Manchester Street lot. This will cause a number of spaces in the High Street lot to now be utilized for game day operations. Due to reduced parking in the High Street lots, fans are encouraged to use alternative game day parking options that are listed below.
- Transit Center Garage (150 East Vine Street) — 600 spaces, $5 per vehicle
- Helix Garage (150-160 West Main Street) — 250 spaces, $5 per vehicle
- Courthouse Parking Garage (105 Barr Street) — 350 spaces, $4 per vehicle
Lexington Center will still provide accessible parking on a game-by-game basis in the High Street Lot inside Gate 1. This lot will open approximately four hours prior to tip-off. This lot requires a state-issued disabled placard and will be cash only.
Kentucky (10-0) is off to its second best start under Matthew Mitchell, who has led the Wildcats to start 10-0 or better five times in his tenure. UK is coming off arguably its best performance of the year, defeating Winthrop 91-36. On top of earning a season high in points scored, UK hit 13 3-pointers – 11 in the first half alone, which tied a program record for most 3s made in the first half – and shot over 50 percent from the field for the second straight game. Senior guard Jaida Roper was the star for Kentucky in the game, scoring a career-high 30 points on 12-of-13 shooting with four assists. The strong showing from the field was the third-best field goal percentage for a UK player in a game in program history (minimum 10 attempts). Four other Wildcats scored double figures in the game, including a career-high tying 13 from sophomore guard Blair Green.
Sophomore guard Rhyne Howard leads Kentucky this season averaging 19.6 points per game. Howard is also averaging 5.6 rebounds per game and has 25 assists, 23 steals and 11 blocks. Senior guard Sabrina Haines, who ranks second in the Southeastern Conference in 3-point field-goal percentage, is averaging 11.6 points per game with 5.1 rebounds per game. Roper has upped her season average to 9.2 points per game with a team-best 43 assists, while Green is averaging 8.2 points and 3.0 rebounds per game. Junior forwards Tatyana Wyatt and KeKe McKinney are having great seasons averaging 7.4 points and 6.8 points per game respectively.
As a team, Kentucky has been clicking on all cylinders during this homestand. In the last six games, UK is hitting 49.2 percent from the field with 59 3s made, 115 assists and just 70 turnovers. The Wildcats have hit 10 or more 3s in three straight games for the first time in program history. The stretch started with 10 against Charlotte before 11 against Samford and a season-best 13 against Winthrop. UK has already hit 10 or more 3s in five games this season. Kentucky hit 10 or more 3s in five games last season.
Louisville enters Sunday’s game with a 9-1 record and ranked seventh in both the Associated Press Top 25 and USA Today/Coaches Top 25. The Cardinals started the year with eight straight wins, including topping No. 1 Oregon in the Paradise Jam in late November that moved them up to No. 2 in the national rankings. In its following game, UofL lost at Ohio State, 67-60. Louisville got back in the win column in its last outing, winning at Northern Kentucky 85-57 on Sunday, Dec. 8.
The Cardinals are averaging 77.3 points per game this season while limiting opponents to 57.9 points per game. Louisville is shooting 45.8 percent from the field and 35.5 percent from long range on the year, averaging 15.8 assists per game and a 11.3 rebounds margin. Defensively, teams are hitting just 36.7 percent from the field and 26.8 percent from 3 against the Cardinals, who are forcing 17.7 turnovers per game.
Junior guard Dana Evans leads Louisville in scoring this season at 19.1 points per game, adding 31 assists and a team-high 30 3-pointers. Senior guard Jazmine Jones is averaging 13.6 points per game with a team-best 35 assists and 17 steals, while sophomore guard Elizabeth Balogun is the final Cardinal player averaging 10 or more at 10.1 points per game. Balogun has added 19 3-pointers and 11 blocks. Senior forward Kylee Shook leads the team with 19 blocks, adding 8.2 rebounds per game and 9.6 points per game.
Kentucky leads the all-time series in games played against Louisville, 34-21, including a 22-5 mark in games played in Lexington. UofL has won three straight meetings, including the last game played in Lexington – a 87-63 win in Memorial Coliseum on Dec. 17, 2017. This is the fifth time the two teams have met in Rupp Arena with the series tied 2-2. The last meeting in Rupp Arena was on Dec. 10, 2015 with UK winning 72-54.
Last season, the two teams played at the KFC Yum! Center with UofL winning 80-75. Howard had a double-double with 25 points and 10 rebounds, while five Louisville players scored in double figures led by Asia Durr, who had 32 points. Jones had 12 points, while Evans had 10 points.
Kentucky holds a 28-18 all-time record at Rupp Arena, including an 9-9 mark under Matthew Mitchell. Last year, UK won both of its games in Rupp Arena defeating Virginia 63-51 and Florida 62-51. UK has played at least one game in Rupp Arena each of the last nine years. This is the third straight year Kentucky has played two or more games in the historic venue.
For more information on the Kentucky women’s basketball team, visit UKathletics.com or follow @KentuckyWBB on Twitter, Instagram andFacebook.
‑ GO CATS –
For more information contact:
Evan Crane; [email protected]; (859) 257-8431
Cami Moore; [email protected]; (859) 257-8431
UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
MATTHEW MITCHELL PRE-LOUISVILLE NEWS CONFERENCE
FRIDAY, DEC. 13, 2019
JOE CRAFT CENTER – LEXINGTON, KY.
Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening statement…
“Well, it’s our annual game with Louisville. As usual, it will be a really tough game. They are always a very good team and well coached and well prepared and tough. So, it’ll be a great challenge for us, and I know the players will be motivated to prepare well, and we’ve got a couple of days to try to get ready. We’re looking forward to the challenge on Sunday.”
On if this game is a good measure of Kentucky before conference play…
“Yeah, it’s good timing for us. It’s a great challenge. They’re an outstanding team and are really, really talented. They will pose a great challenge for us. We know, throughout our conference season, we’re going to plays some very good teams, and I think this is exactly the kind of challenge we need right now for us to progress as a team. I’ve been really proud of how the team has worked to get to this point. It’s a tremendous opportunity now to see where we are. It’s an opportunity to win a very meaningful ball game and all of the emotions that come with that. So, it’s a very good test for us, and it’ll be a good opportunity on Sunday.”
On how different Louisville is from last year…
“Well, I think that they are a really good Louisville team, year-in and year-out. They’ve done so many things well, year-in and year-out. They’re always well-coached, always tough and a physical team. They just make it tough on you to run your stuff, score, they’re just not going to let you score easily, or let you score the way that you have designed to score. You just have to be mentally tough in this game and psychically tough in this game. I think that is something that they always pose as a big challenge for us, just getting in there and it’s not always going to be pretty. But, you have to fight your way through a possession and have tremendous discipline, patience and toughness to get it done. So, from that standpoint, they are what we see year-in and year-out, a really good basketball team.”
On the team’s excitement ahead of the game…
“There is no denying that they’re excited. They understand that this is… not only is Louisville a top team in the country and a very good team, but it’s Kentucky vs. Louisville. So, they understand that. They’re highly motivated to win. They’re going to have to work really hard to earn a victory. They’re going to have to play really hard, play together and get it done as a team to get a victory. But, they’re certainly motivated and excited, and I don’t try to tamp that down any, from the standpoint of being excited to play. It’s one of the fun things about having a rivalry game. We want to play with tremendous respect for them and we certainly have that for their team. They’re a tremendous basketball team. But, we are excited to play and we want to play our best, and we definitely want to win this game badly for our team and all of our fans, and what you would expect in a Kentucky vs. Louisville game.”
On the shooting confidence level of the team…
“Well, we just try to take it day by day from the standpoint of focusing on putting in the reps that we feel like we need to be a good shooting team. I think early in the season, we had a lot of unknowns. We lost two real good corner stones of the program from the previous four years in Maci Morris and Taylor Murray, so we had to find ourselves and put it together. We had some tough games on the road early on, so it was slow going. But, we’ve been working hard at our shooting since June. So, one thing about it is, the previous performance doesn’t guarantee anything going forward. The shooting part, you have to go out and earn it every day and game. And, the defense you’re playing against has something to do with it too, and I know Louisville defensively is not going to just give us anything. So, we have to go out and earn it in this game. So, from the standpoint of can you put the ball in the basket, they should have great confidence and understand that that is what we’re capable of doing, but we have to stay tremendously focused on our fundamentals, we have to be ready to catch and shoot, we have to be on balance when we shoot the ball… all of those little things add up to being successful. We’ve had some good shooting games these past few games. For us to be a contender and the kind of team that we aspire to be, we will need to shoot the ball well. We are versatile and can move around the court. We’re not a power-post team where we’re going to throw it in and overpower you with our size and strength, so we have to get at it a different way than that, and one of those things is having multiple people who can make shots. For us to reach our potential, we will need to be able to do that well.”
On if your coaching approach has changed with this game since you became the head coach…
“Well, hopefully you grow from wisdom and you mature a little bit. I don’t know how infamous it is, but I came out of the gates firing and I was so young and dumb at the time that I thought that was some way of getting people fired up. I watched too much SportsCenter at that time. I thought that was going to go down as being something really cool. We all know now that it was not, it was just young and dumb. I think when you’re in it this long and you have the experience, you just know what to expect from the standpoint of how tough the game will be. Out of the 12 previous editions, there’s been a couple that have gone our way big and their way big, but usually you’re just in the fight and you have to get it done. What we try to do is we don’t try to go either way and put too much on it or too little on it. It’s definitely a rivalry game. The thing that helps you focus is that they’re just always really good. So, we need to win this game for our season and our team and it’s the next game on the schedule. So, from that standpoint you approach it like you do the next game on your schedule. But, it’s silly to say that it’s like it’s another game. So, as a coach, I will be very direct with them throughout our preparation that we’re going to have to be super tough. If you don’t show up tough in this game, then you’re not going to have a chance. We’re going to have to play with some discipline and some patience in this game to get it done and you just cannot waiver in those things in this game. I will talk more about that than I will the emotional dynamic of the rivalry.”
On Jeff Walz coaching Rhyne Howard last summer on Team USA…
“I’ve got my hands full trying to prepare the team for their team. That will put too much stress on my brain to try and figure out that dynamic. If that helps them in some way, it’ll just have to help them. I have no way of combating that. I think Jeff has talked about his respect for Rhyne and what she has meant for USA Basketball, so I think on those occasions we’re cheering for our country. They’ve done a great job the last couple of summers winning gold. I know he has been a big part of that as the coach, and she’s had a big part of that as a player. We’re appreciative of that. I think she has really enjoyed playing for Coach Walz and he has done a great job with Team USA. In our game, one thing that you do know is that they’re going to try to make it hard on Rhyne and Rhyne has to be prepared for that. it’s not going to be a picnic on Sunday afternoon for her. She has to be mentally prepared and you can’t let any of the external things get into your way of preparing. It’ll be a tough game on Sunday afternoon and we will try to be well prepared in what we hope will be a great victory.”
On Jaida Roper and Rhyne Howard scoring 30 points in the last two games…
“Well, it was fun for Jaida Roper… right? My goodness, what a great job she has done for us. She has grown in so many ways since she has gotten on campus. She came to us at a time when people were walking out the door and she walked in the door and it’s been a lot of fun to see her grow. To have that kind of moment during her senior year, I’ll be fine if she does that in every game form here on out. If she doesn’t, she’ll have that. It’s one of those great memories she’ll have. The other thing that I loved about it, it was not some fluke type deal. She took good shots, she made great decisions on the floor to put herself in the position to make some shots. She still distributed the ball well, she played a good game. So, it wasn’t anything where she was jacking up shots at the end to try to do something.. she really played within the framework of the offense. So, I was real proud of her for that. Great moment for her. What we have to do for this game is we have to make sure that we don’t have preconceived notions of what any individual will do. We need to stick together and get tough, we need to play with a tremendous about of discipline and patience and try to fight our way through 40 minutes and see if we can earn a victory.”