‘They’re going to be really good.’ Despite jittery finish, UK women’s opener spurs hope.

Kyra Elzy’s new-look Kentucky Wildcats seemed to be pulling away for an easy victory in their season opener against Radford on Monday night, but a fourth-quarter rally from the visitors resulted in a slightly too close for comfort 82-78 victory in Memorial Coliseum.

The Wildcats built a 63-46 lead in the third quarter courtesy of a 30-13 run dating back to the second quarter, but Radford gained momentum late in the period with back-to-back three-pointers to trim the Kentucky lead to 11 points going into the fourth quarter.

Sophomore guard Jada Walker’s layup with 8:35 left to play pushed the lead back to 15, but Radford continued to scrape back and eventually cut the deficit to one possession with seven seconds left to play.

Walker made a clutch free throw after being fouled, and Oregon transfer Maddie Scherr stole a pass on the ensuing possession to hold on for the victory.

“We’ll take any win,” Elzy said. “Any win is a great win and we’ll take it.

“Obviously, that is the ultimate goal, is to win. We’ll go back to work on Wednesday and continue to work on our defensive execution. I thought in the fourth (quarter) we made some crucial defensive mistakes. Either helping too much or giving up open threes. But hats off to Radford. I thought they came in here with an excellent game plan. They made us defend late into the shot clock and made us pay for defensive mistakes.”

Walker, one of five returning players from last year’s SEC Tournament championship roster, led the Wildcats with 19 points.

Senior guard Robyn Benton was the only other Kentucky player to join Walker in double figures, scoring 17 points on 6-of-15 shooting.

Radford, which brought nine new players into the program this season, was led by senior forward Rachel LaLonde’s 20 points on 8-of-11 shooting, including a perfect 3 of 3 from three-point range.

Elzy stuck with the same starting five as in last week’s exhibition win over Pikeville, choosing to go with four veterans in Walker, Benton, graduate student Blair Green and junior forward Nyah Leveretter. Scherr, the 2020 Kentucky Miss Basketball and a five-star recruit at Ryle High School, started at point guard.

Elzy played 10 players in total, including transfers Adebola Adeyeye (Buffalo), Ajae Petty (LSU) and Eniya Russell (South Carolina). Those three played the majority of the minutes off the bench and each contributed in different ways.

Adeyeye secured a game-high nine rebounds off the bench in 21 minutes of action. Russell scored nine points in 15 minutes, and Petty scored six points and grabbed three rebounds in 13 minutes.

Freshman guard Amiya Jenkins and senior guard Emma King also saw action. Jenkins, Kentucky’s 2022 Miss Basketball from Anderson County, provided four points in eight minutes.

The Wildcats owned the glass with a 41-28 rebounding advantage and turned the ball over just 10 times while forcing 17 Radford turnovers, but it was a dreadful shooting night from three-point range despite getting some good looks.

Kentucky finished 2 of 18 from deep while Radford connected on seven three-pointers, providing a plus-15 advantage from outside.

Elzy said the goal going into the game was to commit 12 turnovers or fewer with a goal of 20 offensive rebounds.

The Wildcats finished with 19 offensive boards and had 56 points in the paint, which she was proud of.

“We haven’t shot the three well,” Elzy said. “We’ll go back and practice. Shoot more threes in Memorial so they can feel the rims and get a better feel. But we’re a better three-point shooting team than what we’re showing right now.”

Throughout the night, Walker was a reliable piece to the Wildcats’ victory.

Scherr committed her second foul with 2:34 left in the first quarter, relegating her to the bench for the remainder of the first half.

Walker filled in as point guard and finished with an efficient 8-of-11 shooting performance.

“I feel like we were being aggressive from the jump,” Walker said. “Getting to the basket and getting paint points. That was one of our team goals going into this game.”

Radford head coach Mike McGuire said he was proud of his team for battling back from a 17-point deficit. He expects Elzy’s team to form into a solid unit once more cohesion occurs as the season goes on.

“Kentucky’s going to be very, very good.” McGuire said. “They’re like us; we have nine new girls, they have 10, so early in the season it’s just trying to figure things out. Their pressure is what we thought it’d be, especially in the first half. They didn’t let us pass it much. I thought their rebounding was going to be a major problem. They have some size and physicality.

“Once they settle down and be together, they’ve got some really good players. They’re going to be really good.”

Next game

Morehead State at Kentucky

When: 6 p.m. Friday

TV: SEC Network Plus (online only)