By Les Johns

The No. 14 Cats forced 36 turnovers and out-rebounded the Mississippi Valley State Devilettes 46-19 en route to a 90-51 win at Memorial Coliseum Sunday afternoon.

The Cats’ defense made it difficult for MVSU to get shots in the first half and even harder to make shots in the second half.

It took MVSU more than three minutes to even launch a first shot attempt. By that time, the Cats had already forced five turnovers and had jumped out to a 10-0 lead.

UK forced 25 MVSU turnovers and outrebounded the Devilettes 25-16 in the first half, which led to the Cats having almost twice as many field-goal attempts (39-21). UK led at the half 51-23.

“They get after you from all angles,” MVSU head coach Nate Kilbert said. “It’s something you need more than one day to work on — you need a month.”

“The path may look wide open, but it’s not,” MVSU forward Brittney Lakes said, who led the Devilettes with 18 points.

MVSU couldn’t find the bottom of the net for most of the second half, hitting just one of its first 19 field-goal attempts during a 28-5 start for the Cats.

The Cats once again had a balanced scoring attack, with seven netting double-figures — all between 10 and 13 points each.

“I think that we have numerous weapons,” UK head coach Matthew Mitchell said. “When you have those kind of weapons on the court it gives you some confidence that no matter what situation you are in you can score enough points to win a ball game.”

“I think any given night anyone can score,” senior guard Amber Smith said. “It’s not just one player a team can key on.”

A’dia Mathies, Bernisha Pinkett and Bria Goss all scored 13, Keyla Snowden contributed 12,  Amber Smith and Samantha Drake scored 11 and Kastine Evans added 10.

Snowden, coming off a 19-point performance Friday against Sam Houston State, was a perfect 4-for-4 behind the arc.

Drake had her second-consecutive double-double, with 11 points and 11 rebounds.

The Cats went 3-0 over the five-day student Thanksgiving break, also defeating Nebraska-Omaha on Wednesday 81-48 and Sam Houston State on Friday 73-52.

Heralded freshman forward Bra’Shey Ali returned to action for the Cats after a multi-game suspension. She got eight minutes of action Friday against  Sam Houston State and contributed seven points, four rebounds and three blocked-shots in 15 minutes of action Sunday in the win over MVSU.

“I’m really proud of her,” Mitchell said. “It was not easy for her to get back in this position. She showed us something with her effort and energy today.”

Sophomore guard Maegan Conwright, who averages 6.7 points in 19.5 minutes per game, did not play in the game.

“We try to be sincere and serious about earning your minutes in practice,” Mitchell said. “Her minutes today are a reflection of what’s been happening in practice.”

The Cats (7-0) have a week off before hosting in-state rival Louisville at Memorial Coliseum Sunday at 1 p.m.  The Cardinals (6-1) are currently ranked No. 12 in the coaches poll and No. 11 in the AP poll.

“We lost by 26 (last season) and I was on the bench, and couldn’t do anything about it,”  Smith said. “That just hurt. I can’t wait, I’m ready right now.”