No. 12 Kentucky Escapes Tennessee State

Photo Britney Howard | UK Athletics

Kentucky the Cats returned from their holiday break today a little sluggish against the Tigers of Tennessee State, but No. 12 UK hung on to defeat TSU 87-75. With multiple starters out with injury, freshman post-player Alexis Jennings had a career day, finishing with 27 points and eight rebounds. it was her fourth-straight double-digit scoring effort, and she seems to have rounded the corner just in time for conference play to begin.

“That was a tough, tough game. I knew it was a possibility of it going to be tough today due to our roster dealing with injury and illness. Not the best game we’ve played this year but with the difficult circumstances I was proud of our players to find a way to win,” said Coach Mitchell.

Tennessee State had gotten pounded earlier this season by NC State and Tennessee, but the Cats were unable to get the distance they wanted against the Tigers. TSU battled on the boards toe-to-toe with Kentucky, and while UK forced 29 turnovers, the visiting team was able to nullify the quick pace with tough play from Lawrence and Hudson who finished with 19 and 16 apiece.

“I thought this was a great basketball setting. I’m very proud of that. I’m very proud of my team I thought we played extremely hard. We matched them on the boards, had too many turnovers. We played them even the whole second half, I was very proud of that,” said TSU Coach Inman.

Senior guards Bria Goss and Jennifer O’Neill were both sidelined today with injuries. Goss is in the midst of sitting out 4-6 with a broken left thumb while O’Neill tweaked her leg in practice and sat out with a strained patellar tendon.

Today’s game marked the final game of the non-conference portion of the season and the last game of what has been a successful 2014 for the women’s basketball program at UK. The Cats start SEC play this Friday on the road against Alabama at 3:00. Until then…

@WilderTreadKSR