Kyra Elzy breaks down Kentucky WBB's SEC-opening win over Arkansas

So far, Kentucky Women’s Basketball is 1-0 in the Southeastern Conference. With a win against Arkansas on Thursday, the ‘Cats improved to an 8-7 overall record with a four-game winning streak. If you read Phoenix Stevens’ story with his predictions on how this portion of the season would go, you’d remember that, one: he predicted this win, and two: the ‘Cats only have four more predicted wins in conference play.

Amazingly though, Kentucky breezed past the Razorbacks for a 73-63 win.

Based on Thursday’s game, the ‘Cats are still struggling with consistent shooting, but their defense was on point. In fact, they held Arkansas’ leading scorer Taliah Scott to 11 points on 5-16 shooting. The freshman typically averages 22.3 points per game, and as mentioned in the preview, when Scott is cold, so are the Razorbacks.

To be perfectly honest, not many people expected Kentucky to win their SEC opener, much less against Arkansas. But, in hopefully common fashion, the ‘Cats proved the doubters wrong and came out on top. When you have a 22-point, 19-rebound performance from Ajae Petty, it’s kind of hard to lose. However, we should take into account the fact that senior Maddie Scherr didn’t take a single shot from the field, fouled out, and only scored three points off of free throws. The ‘Cats showed resilience, something that we’ve seen from them all season, and head coach Kyra Elzy thinks the same thing.

“We have to stay together. It’s a game of runs and resiliency,” Elzy said in a postgame press conference. “Stay with your game, make sure we’re playing our game, buying into the defensive effort.

“And for this team, it doesn’t matter who gets the credit. Doesn’t matter. We just need people to step up and make game-winning plays and our mantra today, whatever it takes, and you have to be willing to do your job and we did that.”

Despite a slow start offensively for both teams, the ‘Cats entered into a rhythm going into the second quarter. They went from going 3-15 in the first quarter, to scoring 20 points in the second on 9-17. Arkansas, on the other hand, scored only 14 points in the first half alone.

For the second game in a row, every player who hit the floor (aside from one), scored at least two points for the ‘Cats. This time, however, instead of only having one player in double-digits, Kentucky had three. Emma King, who we’ve seen step up before, made her position clear with 10 points. The senior also had three rebounds, two assists, and two steals, showing that she can easily switch from guard to forward if needed. Brooklynn Miles had another standout game, with 12 points. The junior, who now averages 6.1 points per game, also gathered three rebounds, an assist, and a steal.

“I thought Brooklyn Miles really set the tone for us defensively,” Elzy said regarding the 5-foot-5 guard. “You know, we went in saying that we have to run them off the three-point line, bring ball pressure, and make them start their offense out on the floor and not let them operate the three-point line and we did that I thought, early.”

Miles was the main contributor defending Taliah Scott, who, as I said earlier, only had 11 points. Without their leading scorer, Arkansas needed another player to step up. That player was Samara Spencer. Spencer finished with 25 points and seven rebounds, along with three assists and two steals. Spencer also drew 10 fouls from the ‘Cats, which sent her to the line more often than not. Kentucky definitely had some trouble containing the junior guard.

“Speed and her ability to get downhill and finish,” Elzy said regarding Spencer’s performance. “I thought she hit some tough ones down the stretch, and we started fouling and she got free throws. They are a very talented team.”

Nonetheless, Kentucky came out on top with a much-needed win. Next up, the Lady Cats face the Tennessee Volunteers at Thompson-Boling Arena on Sunday. Tipoff is set for 1:00 p.m. EST and can be watched on SEC Network+.