The UK women’s basketball team (16-6, 5-6 SEC) ended its three-game losing streak as senior Janee Thompson led the No. 18 ranked Cats in a victory over the LSU Tigers (8-16, 2-9 SEC), 70-58 Sunday afternoon. Thompson recorded her third-career double-double.

“I think (with) the amount of assists I had, I have to give a lot of credit to my teammates. They did a good job of knocking down shots and making lay-ups,” Thompson said. “They gave me all the confidence in the world today to go out and play hard and play my game, because I only have a few games left. They were really just behind me the entire time.”

This is the 16th time the UK Hoops captain has crossed into double-figure scoring. She ended the game with 16 points, 10 assists, two rebounds and a steal. 

“She had a great game today, and she really showed some great leadership today and some great fire. Our leadership today from her standpoint was really good,” UK head coach Matthew Mitchell said after the game. “I know that was a tough time for her Thursday night to go in that building after that injury and to come back today and she shot the ball great. Her shots are looking really good and we just have to make sure we take good ones and we will be in good shape.”

With the victory, UK has kept LSU winless in Lexington since 2009. 

The Cats shot an outstanding 56 percent from the field to begin the game and scored the most 1st-quarter points scored all season in league action, with a lead of 26-10 over the Tigers. Five straight points from Thompson helped the Cats to go on a 7-0 run in the second quarter, making the halftime score 37-22. The third quarter looked much like the first as the Cats had another 20-point quarter, outscoring the Tigers 21-14. LSU ended the period down 22, at 58-36.

The fourth quarter started slipping away from the Cats as LSU scored 12 of the first 14 points of the quarter, pressuring UK to call a timeout. They outscored UK 22-12 in the fourth quarter but only got within 10 points with a little over a minute left to play.

“We also cannot seem to stand success when we get a big lead. It just seems that we don’t value defense possessions the way we need to,” Mitchell said. “But, they just started doing whatever they wanted to, they were in the fourth quarter, and luckily we scored enough to win. It was not our finest moment and we will try to get better from it.”

LSU outrebounded UK, 37-28. The next closest player to 15 rebounds was LSU’s Akilah Bethel with six rebounds adding 10 points for the Tigers.

“I loved some of the things that we did to build a big lead, but we just showed a lot of immaturity there by letting the fourth quarter get away from us, but happy to win,” Mitchell said.