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The Kentucky women’s basketball team picked up its most impressive win of the season Wednesday night, topping Minnesota 80-74 in Minneapolis. Now, the Cats face another challenge, taking on in-state rival Louisville on Sunday at Rupp Arena.
Whenever the Cats and Cards meet, it means a lot, especially for players on both Kentucky teams. UK head coach Kyra Elzey knows this game is very important to the Bluegrass natives.
Obviously, they are excited about it. He grew up in the state of Kentucky,” Elzey said. “It’s a big game because it’s next on our schedule and it’s the University of Louisville.”
UK graduate student Blair Green will face Louisville for the final time. The Harlan County native is always eager to play cards, especially at Rupp.
“It’s always a big game. It’s a fun game with a lot of energy,” Green said. . It’s a big rivalry. It’s a huge game, they’re a great team. This game is definitely different.”
Kentucky leads the all-time series with Louisville 34-23, including a 22-6 mark in games played in Lexington. However, the Cards have won the last five games in the series. However, four of those games are very close.
In 2016, the Cards won 69-67. Two years later, it was U of L holding off UK 80-75. In 2019, Kentucky trailed by just one and the ball was in Ryan Howard’s hands with the game on the line. But the future WNBA top pick missed a three-pointer at the buzzer and Louisville won 67-66. Last season, Kentucky led Louisville at the half, only to fall 64-58.
Green knows last season’s game could go either way. And she pinpointed exactly what went wrong.
“I think we really put up a great fight against them last year,” Green said. “The only thing we lacked was the beginning. The beginning put us in a hole.
Kentucky’s last win against Louisville came on December 10, 2015, when Makayla Epps hit 10 of 11 shots from the floor en route to 24 points in UK’s 72–54 win.
Sophomore Jada Walker has been a standout for the Cats so far this season. She averaged 15.4 points, 3.8 assists and 3.4 steals per game through eight contests. Robin Benton is scoring 14.8 points per game and has made a team-high nine three-pointers on the season. Green is Kentucky’s second double-figure scorer, averaging 10.4 points per game.
The guard combination of Walker and another native Kentuckian, Maddie Scherer, has made the Cats effective on both ends of the court through eight games. Scherer leads the team and the SEC in assists with an average of 6.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per contest (6.3 per game).
Kentucky will look to snap its five-game skid against Louisville on Sunday. That would be a big win for the Cats, especially the native Kentuckians.
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