In the same manner as the men’s team through the beginning month-plus of the season, the recipe of a Wildcat loss on the women’s side has become ingrained in the brain: lack of secondary scorers, plus a high number of fouls and turnovers with little paint defense. This was again the case in today’s SEC quarterfinal matchup, a 78-66 defeat to No. 16 Georgia.

Kentucky had scoring droughts of 3:08, 4:20, 2:06, 3:01 and 3:10 in the first half alone, meaning it spent 78.75% (15:45 of 20 minutes) of the initial two quarters failing to manufacture a single point. The Bulldogs capitalized, racing out to a 15-2 lead and never trailing in the highly anticipated heavyweight bout.

“All credit to Georgia. They came out a lot more intense,” Rhyne Howard said postgame. “They just stayed on our necks… we tried to make runs, but things weren’t going our way.”

Howard was the only Cat able to score consistently over the game’s duration, snagging 33 of Kentucky’s 66 points on 13-for-24 shooting (3-of-6 behind the arc). Chasity Patterson dropped each of her 11 points in the third quarter, the lone period in which more than three Wildcats find the bottom of the net.

“We’ve talked about a balanced scoring attack,” head coach Kyra Elzy said. “I will have to do a better job at trying to get other people involved in the offense.”

“They definitely interrupted us down low,” Howard said. “But some of it is us as well We got to lock in and we got to be able to finish down there.”

The Cats sent Georgia to the free throw line 29 times in this one; they only had ten attempts themselves. Some may attribute that to an unfavorable whistle, but the tenacity of their opponent forced them to operate at a much quicker pace and get sloppy. Seven first half turnovers contributed to 11 points for the Bulldogs, who tallied 21 points total off the eleven Wildcat giveaways.

“Georgia started off extremely aggressive with us,” Elzy commented. “Made us play faster than we wanted. We settled for some outside shots early instead of playing downhill.”

Jenna Staiti unsurprisingly paced the Bulldogs, recording a 20 point, 12 rebound stat line that’s becoming almost automatic for talented bigs opposing the Kentucky frontcourt. One of those points was the 1,000th of her career; she also notched three blocks in her 28 minutes of action.

“We had a bad taste in our mouth from the last time we played them,” the All-SEC second teamer said. “From the start… we came out ready to play, and it showed.”

Maya Caldwell made only a free throw in that previous meeting, a 62-58 Kentucky win in Athens. She poured in 20 points today without leaving the floor a single time.

“Maya is the hardest worker we have. She’s always in the gym,” Bulldog coach Joni Taylor told reporters. “When you see someone like that now have the success they’re having… [you’re] extremely happy for her because she did it the right way.”

Kentucky is headed back to Lexington much sooner than it desired, and will now have to wait ten days to find out its first round NCAA opponent on Selection Monday (Mar. 15). Howard expressed extreme displeasure with the result, vowing that the team will not play nearly as poorly when it returns to the floor.

“We should have won this game… we’re a better team than what we showed today,” she stated. “We’re going to prove it next time we step on the court.”