Maddie Scherr struggled to score despite getting "good looks" against South Carolina

Just about everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong in Kentucky women’s basketball’s 98-36 loss to No. 1 South Carolina.

The score speaks for itself. A 62-point loss like that is a sign that almost nothing was going Kentucky’s way, and that was especially true for senior guard Maddie Scherr. Scherr scored nine points, but that was a product of shooting just 3-19 (16%) from the field.

The difference between South Carolina’s offense and Kentucky’s was night and day. South Carolina was rolling all night long, making one highlight play after another. Whether it was a beautiful set of passes and cuts to set up a bucket or Ashlyn Watkins’ transition dunk, the Gamecocks were on fire.

THE BUILDING. IS. SHAKING!!!@Ashlyn2W PUTS IT DOWN!

📺| https://t.co/0JOcVMMQoS pic.twitter.com/cb8DwtnbHh

— South Carolina Women's Basketball (@GamecockWBB) January 16, 2024

For UK, their offense became stagnant on every trip down the floor. Oftentimes, Scherr was tasked with taking charge of the offense. It didn’t help that Ajae Petty was a non-factor against South Carolina, either. Petty scored just two points and grabbed five rebounds on the night, so Kyra Elzy desperately needed Scherr to make some magic happen with the ball in her hands, but that didn’t happen.

So, was it inefficient shot-taking from Scherr that was the issue? Well, Kyra Elzy believes the senior got some “good looks” despite having the cold hand.

“I actually thought that she had some good looks tonight,” Kyra Elzy said postgame. “We gotta continue to do a better job of creating shots for her. She has to take the ones that are open, which she did tonight.”

Trying to help Scherr out

Even through her offensive struggles, Kyra Elzy is still confident in Scherr’s ability to produce.

“They didn’t go down, but I’m still confident in her ability to score,” Elzy said. “I thought she was extremely aggressive. She’s usually pretty efficient scoring. So, we’ll go back and look at the tape and see how we can help her out of the ball-screen and creating easier scoring opportunities for her.”

Clearly, as you can tell by the team’s 36 combined points, the entire offense was a problem, not just Scherr’s shooting, and that seems to be something that Coach Elzy has taken notice of.

Saniah Tyler was the only player who had a decent game against the Gamecocks. The sophomore guard recorded 13 points going 3-9 (33%) from three-point range. Other than Scherr and Tyler, the rest of the team only scored 14 total points. Yes, the seven other players that played 10+ minutes against South Carolina combined for a whopping 14 points.

So, is Maddie Scherr’s lack of consistent shot-making an issue? Of course. However, that’s an issue that carried over to the rest of the team on Monday night. As a result, Kentucky was absolutely rocked and ate a 62-point loss in Columbia.

If Scherr’s shots aren’t going to fall more frequently, then she’ll need some scoring threats to step up alongside her.