Physical Cardinals overpower Kentucky

Guard Jada Walker and Kentucky were no match for Louisville's physical play Sunday. (Vicky Graff Photo)

Kentucky had four more field goals than Louisville and four more 3-pointers than the Cardinals who were just 1-for-15 from long range Sunday in Rupp Arena. However, Kentucky never really had any momentum after an early Louisville surge as the Cardinals won 86-72 and scored at least 19 points in every quarter.

Louisville came into the game 6-4 and two of the losses came to South Dakota State and Middle Tennessee when it scored just 55 and 49 points in those losses. The Cards had even dropped out of the Top 25 rankings.

Louisville got points this time by going 33-for-39 at the foul line against the smaller, less physical Wildcats. Kentucky made just 10 of 21 charity shots.

“Obviously we don’t want to start slow. That’s not what we’re trying to do and that’s not our intention. Credit to Louisville, I thought they came in and played really hard,” Kentucky coach Kyra Elzy said.

“It just took us a minute to get settled into the physical game. I thought after we did adjust, in the second half, but that’s too long. It took us too long to get settled in.” 


Senior guard Robyn Benton had a season-high 20 points for UK on 8-for-18 shooting along with five rebounds and five assists.

“I hate losing. The team, we’re disappointed. We came here to win today and we have got to improve some things, like rebounding. I know there was a couple of times the ball went over my head and I should have gotten the rebound,” Benton said.

“We’re going to improve, take a look back at the film, try to improve and get better for the next game.” 

Jada Walker went 1-for-8 from the field with three turnovers. Blair Green was 1-for-6 and did not have a rebound. Those numbers have to be better for Kentucky to beat top teams.

Junior guard Maddie Scherr had a season-high 18 points on 6-for-10 shooting along with six assists, five rebounds and two blocks. Freeman Amiya Jenkins went 4-for-7 from the field and had nine points and one rebound in 13 minutes. Ajae Petty had 11 points on 5-for-6 shooting and six rebounds despite being in early foul trouble.

Scherr, an Oregon transfer, did not like how her first UK-Louisville game ended.

“It just sucks, period. I mean honestly you don’t ever want to lose any game, but especially losing to Louisville it just sucks,” Scherr said.

She said the Cats knew Louisville would play physical defense but did not match the Cards’ physicality.

“We talked about how we just need to play tougher. They played more gritty than us tonight and I think that really showed. It was hard to come back from in the second half,” Scherr said.

She’s right. Kentucky actually outscored Louisville 47-42 in the second half but the 42-25 halftime deficit was far too much to overcome for UK, which was coming off a win at Minnesota.

“We have toughness and fight but at the end of the day you have to have discipline. We made a run, but we put them on the free throw line too many times,”  Elzy said. “They make 33 (free throws), ball game. That’s just being more disciplined defensively.”

“Any time you play in a Power Five conference (game) it’s going to be a physical game and that’s just part of it. That’s what we liked, the competition. I thought we adjusted to it down the stretch. We just have to put four quarters together more and be more consistent.” 

It was almost like the first half was a wake-up call for Elzy’s team.

“I mean once we realized we were down and needed turn up the heat somehow just to make some type of run to get back into the game,” Benton said. “Sarting like that, that wasn’t necessarily the game plan. We were down so we had to turn up the heat.” 

Kentucky’s 3-point defense did disrupt the Cardinals. Junior Hailey Van Lith, who became the 32nd Louisville player to reach 1,000 points last week, was 4-for-16 from the field overall and 0-for-6 from 3-point range along with being forced into six turnovers. But she went 13 for 15 at the foul line to finish with 21 points, five rebounds and four assists.

“We just talked about locating shooters, obviously all three of their guards average in double figure scoring, trying to play personnel defense, making sure we closed out on shooters, that we did a good job there,” Elzy said.

“I thought we made a run, had some good defensive stops when we needed it. But at the end of the day, like I said, we fouled way too much. We have to go back, evaluate how we’re calling it in practice what we’re calling in practice, and we’ll learn from this game and continue to get better.”