Vicky Graff Photo
Sophomore Cassidy Rowe had not played more than 15 minutes in a game in her University of Kentucky career before playing 20 minutes in last week’s win over Boston College.
She had never started a game until Sunday when she got the call against Tennessee Tech and responded by playing a career-high 34 minutes.
Kentucky won both games and while she missed both shots she took in Sunday’s win, she did have six assists and just one turnover to help UK win. And get this — she drew three charges. Whatever it takes to win, Rowe will willingly try to do all she can and she helped UK win a second straight game for the first time this season.
That’s a big deal for an in-state player from Shelby Valley who committed to UK as a high school freshman but played in an average of just 4.1 minutes per game in 13 games last season.
However, Rowe knows how to handle adversity and she doesn’t want to be playing anywhere but Kentucky. She missed most of her high school freshman season with a knee injury and then suffered another knee injury before the sophomore season that forced her to miss games.
“So proud of Cassidy Rowe, three charges and we needed every one of them. I got out there, I was like what is it, and she was like I can’t feel anything right now coach. I was like well just lay here for a minute,” Kentucky coach Kyra Elzy said.
“But that is a testament to her toughness. She’s willing to lay it on the line for this team. That’s part of her role, she started today, and was solid, six assists today. So that was big. So we talked to her about being a grown-up moment and I thought she grew up in this game.”
Elzy knows that kind of effort is the only way her undersized, undermanned team can win games.
“We have to lay our hat on the defensive end. We have to fly around. We have to sell out. We just have to play so hard. We’re talented but not talented enough not to play hard,” Elzy said.
“So we have to sell out every game and we have to play together. It doesn’t matter who gets the credit. And then transition offense. We got to rebound and run or steal the ball and run and that is the identity of our team and we have to be tough.”
