PREVIEW: Kentucky WBB faces Austin Peay at Georgetown College

Tuesday night, the Kentucky Women’s Basketball team will face Austin Peay at Georgetown College’s Davis-Reid Alumni Gym as the Wildcats’ usual home gym, Memorial Coliseum, continues to undergo renovations. Kentucky looks to remain undefeated before heading into the long-awaited Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands, which consists of three games in three days.

So far, the ‘Cats have defeated Kentucky State in the team’s lone exhibition match before downing ETSU and USC Upstate to start the regular season, making them 2-0 officially. Their previous matchups have shown Kentucky’s offensive strengths in the paint, but not so much on the perimeter. After going 2-18 from three against USC Upstate and 2-15 against ETSU, the ‘Cats will definitely need to step up their three-point shooting game if they want to defeat the Austin Peay Governors.

In Saturday’s game against USC Upstate, five of Kentucky’s players still managed to reach double-digit scoring despite the disappointing performance from the three-point line. Ajae Petty led her team with 19 points and nine rebounds. If Kentucky’s guards can’t get in the perimeter shooting groove, the 6’4 forward could likely be the Wildcats’ weapon for the night. After all, 58 of Kentucky’s 82 points against USC Upstate were from the paint.

Eniya Russell also stepped up in a big way on Saturday. The guard scored a career-high 14 points to go along with nine rebounds. Hopefully, Russell will be able to carry that momentum into Tuesday night’s matchup and be a difference-maker on the court.

Senior Maddie Scherr exited Saturday’s game after an apparent lower-leg injury in the fourth quarter, but she will most likely make an appearance on Tuesday.

Tipoff is at 6:00 p.m. EST and can be found on SEC Network+ or on the UK Sports Network.

SCOUTING REPORT: Austin Peay Governors

The Austin Peay Governors are 0-2 with losses to Trevecca Nazarene (who?) and Chattanooga. Oddly enough, the Governors were blown out by Trevecca Nazarene (75-59), but they kept it close against the Chattanooga Mocs (57-52), who could very well win the SoCon. The Mocs were neck-and-neck with UK’s first opponent of the season, ETSU, in the SoCon preseason polls. ETSU was picked to actually win the SoCon, but Chattanooga is a solid team as well. Anyway, back to Austin Peay.

Obviously, starting 0-2 is unfortunate for the Governors, but how good is Austin Peay, really? They went from being run off the court by a Division II school to being a couple of plays away from taking down a stout mid-major team. Well, here’s what we can say: Austin Peay as a whole may not be that good, but they do have one absolute stud on their team.

Enter Shamarre Hale, a fifth-year senior center who was picked to the All-ASUN team. Hale has easily been the best player for Austin Peay through two games. She is currently averaging 16.5 points and six rebounds per game while shooting 55.6% from the field. Hale arrived on the scene in Clarksville, TN last season after spending the first three years of her collegiate career at Wright State.

Now, here’s where it starts to get weird. What if I told you Hale doesn’t even start for Austin Peay? In fact, in her 28 total games there thus far, she has only started once. In Austin Peay’s 10-deep rotation, Hale gets the second least amount of minutes. Yes, for whatever reason, their best player is ninth in their rotation. Hale averages just 17.5 minutes per game. Bizarre.

Let’s take a deeper dive into what makes Austin Peay what they are. The Governors were picked fourth in the ASUN in the preseason, but they are not playing up to that standard. Obviously, losing to a DII school is one thing, but being 300th in the nation in rebounds per game is another. The Governors are grabbing just 31 rebounds per game to this point, which will be a major problem when they face the Lady ‘Cats.

If you thought USC Upstate was small, well, let’s just say Hale is Austin Peay’s tallest player, and she’s 6’1. Again, Ajae Petty should do Ajae Petty things. Scoring in the paint, grabbing rebounds, attracting the defense, contesting shots, you get the idea. It wouldn’t be too shocking if she had a 15-15-type performance against the Governors. Kentucky should (again) comfortably win to advance to 3-0.