Kentucky WBB drops fourth straight, falls to Georgia 72-65

In what was probably Kentucky Women’s Basketball’s best chance to finally secure a road win, the ‘Cats couldn’t pull one out over the Georgia Bulldogs.

As mentioned in our preview of the matchup, this now 11-11 (2-7 SEC) Georgia squad is bad, but even still, the ‘Cats couldn’t keep up. The likely culprit? Early foul trouble.

After coming out with a 15-point lead in the first quarter, the ‘Cats were outscored 23-8 in the second. Kentucky’s leading scorers, Ajae Petty (25 points) and Saniah Tyler (18), both got into early foul trouble midway through the second quarter. With three fouls a piece, both players took a seat on the bench to end the half, and Georgia took advantage of the missing pieces.

The Bulldogs went on a 15-0 run to end the half, including a buzzer-beater by Nicholson to tie the game, 30-30.

At the half, Kentucky has given up their 15 point lead after missing all of their last 12 shot.

De'Mauri Flournoy drains a buzzer beater to tie the game heading into the locker room.

UK 30 | UGA 30 | Halftime

— Katie Hutchison (@KHutchisonKSR) February 4, 2024

Straight out the gate of the second half, the Bulldogs went up eight points, and the ‘Cats were never able to fully recover. Tyler committed her fourth foul with five minutes to go in the third quarter and sat with 15 points until the final stretch. Ultimately, Kentucky couldn’t keep up with the Bulldogs and lost 72-65.

UK has now dropped four straight and remains winless on the road this season.

Aside from Petty and Tyler, scoring was basically nonexistent. Eniya Russell, a player who has been consistently putting up double digits for the past four games, finished with nine points on 3-10 (30%). Maddie Scherr finished with only four points and was clearly having trouble putting the ball in the basket. The senior shot 1-6 (16.7%%) from the field, including 1-4 from three. Scherr added four rebounds and a team-high four assists, but also committed five turnovers.

The rest of the players who hit the floor finished in single digits, besides Janae Walker, who didn’t score but managed to grab a pair of rebounds. Overall, the ‘Cats shot 25-56 (41.1%) and were outrebounded 23-43. Despite the seemingly amazing start, Kentucky crumbled under the pressure. As a team, Kentucky committed 24 fouls while the Bulldogs scored 19 points from the foul line compared to Kentucky’s 13-20 (65%) mark.

The game continued to get scrappier, including a fight between players that resulted in a technical foul on Russell and a matching one on Jordan Cole for UGA. From that point on, there was no coming back for the ‘Cats, even though Georgia finished with 22 turnovers. Kentucky only committed 13. In the final stretch, Tyler was forced to foul after a Petty turnover. Tyler fouled out and Kentucky gave up a pair of foul shots to seal the deal.

Kentucky is now 9-14 (2-7 SEC) and is still searching for that first road win. Up next, the ‘Cats get a much-needed week off before they take on Texas A&M at Rupp Arena on Sunday, Feb. 11 at 4:00 p.m. EST.