Cats hogtie Razorbacks 69-52 in first game as ranked team

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The No. 25 Cats (15-3, 3-2 Southeastern Conference) played their first game as a ranked team in three years and didn’t disappoint coaches’ poll voters with a 69-52 win that kept the Arkansas Razorbacks winless in conference play (8-11, 0-6 SEC).

“This collection of players doesn’t really have any experience playing as a ranked team, and I thought they did a good job of staying real close to what our personality is and what we need to do to be successful,” said UK head coach Matthew Mitchell. “I thought our first four minutes, when (the score) was 9-5, I thought you could see that we were in tune with what needed to happen.”

Senior guard Lydia Watkins grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds in UK's 69-52 win over Arkansas on Thursday night. Photo by Zach Brake | Staff

The first few minutes of the game seemed to be a continuation of the story UK started to pen on Sunday with a win over Alabama that came via pressing defense and tremendous passion among the UK players. Just like Alabama, the Razorbacks arrived as a winless team in the SEC, sported red jerseys and struggled to pick apart UK’s defensive scheme.

Aside from defensive preparations, UK’s efforts on the boards were what Arkansas head coach Tom Collen described as “ultra-aggressive.”

Senior guard/forward Lydia Watkins, was once again a key contributor off the bench, snagging eight rebounds in the first half alone and finishing with a game-high 12 rebounds.

“One thing coach talked to (the post players) before the game about, is that win more boards and show our athleticism,” junior forward Victoria Dunlap said.

Dunlap grabbed eight rebounds of her own and scored 18 of her 22 points in the second half. Dunlap also went 10-for-10 from the free-throw line after missing her first two attempts of the game.

Prior to the game, former UK football head coach Rich Brooks, a staunch supporter of the women’s basketball program in his seven years at UK, was honored with a game ball from the UK/Vanderbilt matchup earlier this month. Brooks then addressed UK players at midcourt for additional motivation.

“(Brooks) said ‘go get ‘em’ and he gave us a pre-game pep talk right there at halfcourt,” Mitchell said. “That was really special for our team and our players to have coach Brooks and (his wife) Karen Brooks at halfcourt … we’re just thrilled that we could have a big win with him here.”

However, Brooks wasn’t the only former coach of a team in the Bluegrass state present at the game. Collen was the former head coach at Louisville for four years before leaving for Arkansas in 2007.

Collen’s team managed to keep up with the Cats, who experienced a minor lull in their energy in the first 10 minutes of the second half, but simply could not recover from a 16-point first half deficit.

“I think (UK) is definitely worthy of their national ranking … as a staff we knew we were going to run into a team that could be very aggressive defensively,” Collen said.

In addition to UK’s defensive prowess, Collen noted his team’s offensive futility worsened their cause. Sophomore guard Lyndsay Harris could not provide any relief for young point guard C’eira Ricketts, who Collen said he puts too much pressure on, committing 10 turnovers herself.

“I thought (my team) did what they needed to do, they don’t need to focus on the ranking,” Mitchell said. “They need to understand what makes us go, and I thought they did a great job understanding and executing that tonight.”