Turnovers Doom UK in Loss to No. 7 Vanderbilt

Kentucky did a lot of things well against No. 7 Vanderbilt Wednesday night.

Coach Kenny Brooks’ team shot 56 percent (31 of 55) from the field and 50 percent (10 of 20) on 3-pointers. The Wildcats dominated the boards 39-21 behind 15 rebounds from Clara Strack and 12 by Teonni Key. They had 23 assists led by Tonie Morgan with 10 and Strack with seven.

However, what Kentucky did not do well was value the basketball and 23 turnovers led to 25 points for Vandy in the 84-83 win while UK had just five points off six Vanderbilt turnovers.

The Cats also panicked a bit and committed a foul way too early in the shot clock in the final minute that proved very costly.

“Obviously very disappointed with the outcome. If you want to win a basketball game, the nature of playing against one of the best teams in the country, you have to minimize your mistakes,” said Brooks. “We lost focus several possessions, had careless turnovers, careless miscommunications that could have been rectified if we had just communicated.”

It also hurt that UK could not contain Mikayla Blakes. She went 13-for-25 from the field, including 6-for-9 from 3, to score 37 points — and also added four assists.

“She is one of the best players, if not the best player in the country, and she put them on her back and she made some really big shots down the stretch to propel them to the win,” Brooks said after Blakes ignited a 15-2 run to open the fourth quarter.

“I feel like it’s been a little frustrating period for us just because we felt like we were going in a direction and obviously Teonni got hurt and trying to put it back together, and trying to find ways to get that chemistry, but we’ll continue to fight.”

Key scored a career-high 27 points and grabbed 12 rebounds on her comeback from a dislocated elbow.

“It’s good to be back, but at the end of the day, we didn’t play like we wanted, and that’s what I care about the most,” Key said.

Amelia Hassett hit five 3-pointers to score 19 points and also had five rebounds and four assists.  Strack had another double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds along with the seven assists. Asia Boone was 4-for-5 from 3 and scored 12 points.

Kentucky had a 54-45 lead late in the third quarter but Vandy raced out to a10-point lead in the fourth quarter at 72-62 before UK cut the gap to 72-68. Vandy pushed the lead back out before Key and Strack scored to make it 76-74 with 1:11 to play.

Kentucky was down 80-79 with 25 seconds to play and Vanderbilt made four straight free throws to ice the game.

Brooks was not sure what happened when his team fouled too early late in the game.

“We weren’t supposed to foul in that situation, and I don’t know why we did, chalk it up for experience, but we had plenty of time to get a possession,” Brooks said. “I think it was 43 seconds and we were going to play the possession out and whatever reason she (Boone) fouled. She played hard, she made some shots for us.

“I just made a mistake in there and those are some of the things that we talk about that we have to clean up because we wanted to play that possession out and it’s just unfortunate, but we still had an opportunity to tie the basketball game. That’ll be a learning experience for us.”