Ole Miss dominates cold-shooting Kentucky, as Wildcats continue descent toward SEC cellar

As Kentucky and Ole Miss prepared to take the floor for Monday night’s women’s basketball matchup in Oxford, Miss., the stakes for each team were high.

The Wildcats, who have faced so much disappointment this season in the form of close losses, desperately needed a victory to keep morale afloat and work toward avoiding a losing season.

Ole Miss, which entered the evening in fourth place in the Southeastern Conference and predicted as a 9-seed in the NCAA Tournament by ESPN bracket analyst Charlie Creme, sought its 20th win.

Two programs, trending in opposite directions, both had something to prove.

For the Wildcats, even the players who typically cover up the team’s weaknesses couldn’t find a way to get it together. Kentucky could not score, could not rebound and could not defend in a way that ever positioned the Wildcats to even challenge the Rebels.

And, in the Rebels’ 74-52 victory, Ole Miss lived up to its ranking as the SEC’s second best scoring defense, limiting the Wildcats to their second-lowest point total of the season.

“I mean, they’re extremely athletic,” UK head coach Kyra Elzy said of the Ole Miss defense. “They’re physical. We knew that coming in. We prepared for it in practice. … I thought we really tonight, for the first time in a long time, I thought we regressed and let our offense affect our defense.”

Robyn Benton was the only player to score in double figures for the Wildcats (10-14, 2-10 SEC), finishing with 15 points but shooting 4-for-18 overall and 0-for-5 from three-point range. Three Kentucky starters — Blair Green, Nyah Leveretter and Maddie Scherr — were held scoreless.

Scherr played 16 minutes in the first half but did not return to the game after halftime, suffering from headaches. Elzy said the coaching staff has been aware of the issue.

“We’ve been dealing with it,” Elzy said. “Maddie’s a tough kid and we have an unbelievable medical staff and medical team that are taking care of her. Obviously, we do miss her when she’s not on the floor, but her health is the most important to us. So, we’ll take it day-to-day till we can get her back feeling well.”

Kentucky, ninth in the SEC in field goal percentage this season, made only 15 baskets Monday night in 57 attempts (26.3 percent). Thirty of the Wildcats’ 52 points came from their bench.

Freshman Kennedy Cambridge contributed nine points, two rebounds and three steals. Fellow freshman Amiya Jenkins finished with seven points, as did Ajae Petty.

“Kennedy continues to progress and get better,” Elzy said. “She’s fearless, she’s a competitor and she wants to win. And you need that type of energy. I want to give a shout out to our bench. We have really challenged them to step up, and we’re gonna need them. For the last two games, we have won bench points. So that is a big victory for us. I thought that (Ajae) Petty came in and gave us some rebounds and a spark, but we had 30 bench points today to win, which is a big, big victory. I thought (Amiya Jenkins) came in and gave us a punch late to show you a glimpse of the future with Zennia (Thomas), with Saniah (Tyler), Cassidy Rowe. The future is bright. Tough one to swallow today, but you just have to keep fighting. Press on.”

Kentucky’s inability to score was matched only by its inability to stop Ole Miss.

“We came out like we were running a 100-meter dash,” Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said. “Forty possessions in the first half, that’s super fast. But I knew the girls were just ready to play somebody, because I was ready to coach. It had been eight days off, and they were really well-rested. ... We have a lot of respect for Kentucky, and we’ve seen them come back from down 19 like we have. And so, we didn’t take them for granted at all, and we just wanted to keep playing and keep being aggressive until that buzzer sounded.”

For the second game in a row, Kentucky’s defense was victimized from beyond the arc.

Ole Miss is not a program that relies on its three-point shooting. In its first 19 wins this season, the Rebels (20-5, 9-3 SEC) averaged less than five three-pointers a game. However, it took less than 20 minutes for Ole Miss to nail five Monday night. The Rebels finished 6-of-16 (37.5%).

Ole Miss’s domination of Kentucky was completed on the glass, where the Rebels outrebounded the Cats 52-31. Mississippi finished with 17 offensive rebounds compared to UK’s eight and outscored Kentucky 16-3 in second-chance opportunities and 36-20 in the paint.

Marquesha Davis (14 points, 10 rebounds) and Madison Scott (10 points, 12 rebounds) recorded double-doubles for Ole Miss, which ended up with five double-figure scorers.

The loss was the third in a row for Kentucky, which is only one game ahead of last-place Texas A&M in league play with four regular-season games remaining.

“They’re competitors,” Elzy said of her team. “They are resilient and we’ve battled adversity all year, and the next game will be the most important game. And find a way to try to rally. We don’t have any quit in us. Obviously, very disappointing showing today. Not what we wanted, not what we expected, and we’ve gotta bounce back from here. And go back to the small things that we can control that we did not do today.”

Next game

Georgia at Kentucky

When: 7 p.m. Thursday

TV: SEC Network Plus (online only)

Radio: WLAP-AM 630

Records: Georgia 17-9 (6-6 SEC), Kentucky 10-14 (2-10)

Series: Georgia leads 39-22

Last meeting: Georgia won 64-60 on Jan. 5, 2023, in Athens, Ga.