We’ve got some Wildcat basketball action tonight at 7:00pm when UK Hoops face a hungry Arkansas Pine-Bluff team at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, KY. Matthew Mitchell is looking to increase his current home-game win streak to 23 with a win tonight. It’s not 88 straight games, but it’s a great win stream none-the-less. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Here are the game notes from [URL=”http://www.ukathletics.com/sports/w-baskbl/spec-rel/122010aaa.html”]UK Athletics[/URL]:
The 11th-ranked Kentucky women’s basketball team looks to extend its 22-game home winning streak when it plays host to Arkansas Pine-Bluff in Memorial Coliseum Tuesday, Dec. 21 at 7 p.m. EST. It will mark the Wildcats’ final game before breaking for the holiday. The game will be broadcast live on the Big Blue Sports Radio Network with Neil Price and online at UKathletics.com.
UK (8-1) is coming off a resounding 84-58 win over Alabama A&M on Saturday at home. Four players scored in double-figures paced by a game-high 22 points from senior forward Victoria Dunlap (Nashville, Tenn.). Sophomore guard A’dia Mathies (Louisville, Ky.) followed with 16 points while all 15 of junior guard Keyla Snowden’s (Lexington, Ky.) points came from her game-high five three-pointers. Sophomore Brittany Henderson (Pasadena, Calif.) earned her second career starting spot and didn’t disappoint. The 6-foot-2 forward charted a career-high 11 points and four steals and pulled down a game-high six rebounds.
The Lady Lions (0-7) are searching for their first win of the season after falling to Central Arkansas on Saturday. Senior guard Laquisha Slaton had 17 points while senior guard Jasmine Abrams and sophomore forward Jenise Gentry followed with 16 and 10 points, respectively.
“Arkansas Pine-bluff has played just a murderous schedule against a lot of really tough teams on the road, including Alabama, Mississippi State and SMU,” UK Hoops Coach Matthew Mitchell said. “The main thing that I really would like to see tomorrow night is just a tremendous commitment to the defensive end by our team and working as hard as we can to have our best outing yet as far as from a pressure standpoint. That was the focus in practice today. We had a good practice and good preparation and we will be looking to really working hard tomorrow night to earn a victory.”
UK’s pressure defense has been its forte once again this season. The Wildcats forced Alabama A&M into 31 turnovers, resulting in 36 Wildcat points. UK, which currently ranks eighth nationally in turnover margin (+9.1) and 16th in steals per game (13.1), have forced 20 or more turnovers in seven of nine games, including three with 30 or more and have double-digit steals in six games this season.
Dunlap, who leads the Cats in almost every statistical category, is nearing several milestones in her illustrious career. The All-American needs four rebounds to become just the third player in school history to pull down 900 or more in her career and she is just four points shy of moving into the top 10 on UK’s all-time scoring list (1,441 career points). She currently ranks in the top 10 of 10 other UK career lists.
Arkansas-Pine Bluff has two players averaging 10-plus points in Abrams and Slaton. Abrams adds a team-high 12.8 points per game, while Slaton follows closely behind with 12.2 points per game.
The Cats are 1-0 all-time vs. the Lady Lions. The last meeting was Dec. 17, 2006 in Rupp Arena and UK handled them easily, 83-46. Kentucky is 7-0 all-time, 1-0 this season vs. teams from the Southwest Athletic Conference.
Live audio of the game is available on the Big Blue Sports Network as well as online at UK Athletics.
