Clara Strack is doing it all for Kentucky

Vicky Graff Photo

What a way to celebrate her birthday.

Kentucky sophomore Clara Strack hit 12 of 18 shots to score a career-high 25 points and also tied a career-high with 15 rebounds in a 75-63 victory over No. 19 Illinois Tuesday night in Nashville in the Music City Classic. She also had four assists, one steal and one blocked shot for No. 14 UK.

 “You’ve gotta come play every day,” Strack said after the win. “We knew this was going to be a really big game for us. We knew this could be another statement game for us, so I think we all just came to play.”

Strack made a huge statement the first three quarters until the rest of the UK offense got untracked. She carried the offense and left coach Kenny Brooks impressed.

Strack, who also finished with four assists, one steal and one block, recorded her fourth double-double of the season against the Illini. Kenny Brooks said the Wildcats’ leading scorer, who spent the majority of her freshman campaign behind All-America center Liz Kitley at Virginia Tech last season, is hungry for improvement.

“We knew she had that ability last year,” Brooks said. “She stepped in (for injured All-American Liz Kitley), in the postseason on the biggest stage and performed extremely well. We knew she had the capabilities, but what I didn’t know coming in was how hungry she was gonna be.

“And right from the get-go, the day she walked on campus, she was chomping at the bit wanting to be great. Wanting to be great. I challenge her all the time. So proud of what she did.”

The coach said she did more than just help on offense, too.

“She’s anchoring our defense. She allows me to be able to switch, and she can switch off on a guard and guard just as well as our guards do. So that makes us very versatile, but she was special tonight,” Brooks said.

Strack’s play helped UK defy analysts to win. Illinois hit 20 of 27 free throws while UK was 1-for-2 at the foul line.

“I’ve never in my life been associated with a game like that where the discrepancy was that large, and you win by 23 points,” he said.

Brooks did not complain about the officiating because his team is not a “downhill-driving team” that depends on assists to score while Illinois depended on drives to get to the basket to score.

“I’m not an analytics guy, and that’s why because analytics would’ve probably said, ‘You’re gonna lose that game, doing that,’” Brooks said.

Kentucky (7-0) will have some time off before playing at North Carolina Thursday at 8 p.m. in the ACC/SEC Challenge. Tip off will be at 8 p.m. with the game on ESPN2.