UK Hoops look for 10th straight win over Vanderbilt

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Guard Makayla Epps led the Cats with 16 points and seven rebounds. Photo by Hunter Mitchell | Staff

Caitlin Schwartz

The No. 12 UK women’s basketball team will host the unranked Vanderbilt Commodores Thursday night at 7 p.m. in Memorial Coliseum. The Commodores (14-5, 3-3) will look to upset the Cats (15-3, 4-3) who have won the last nine games against the Commodores.

Vanderbilt is coming off of three wins in its past four games. Vanderbilt is 0-2 against ranked opponents this season, and is seeking its first win over a ranked team since Jan. 11, 2015 when the Commodores knocked off No. 14 Mississippi State.

Thursday’s game will be the 50th meeting between UK and Vanderbilt. The Commodores lead the all-time series 27-22, although the Cats have been in control the last nine matchups.

The last meeting, however, will be why Vanderbilt will want revenge on UK as the Cats gave the Commodores a season-ending loss in the second round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Little Rock, Arkansas, 67-61.

Although Vanderbilt is unranked, they do lead the national rankings in three noteworthy categories. Vanderbilt is ranked No. 8 in the nation in defense (allowing 51.5 ppg), No. 10 in field-goal percentage (46.9 percent) and No. 14 in 3-point accuracy (37.0 percent).

“We’re both coming off of a Monday night game, so preparation time is at a premium, I think for both teams. And Vanderbilt is just one of the toughest defensive teams in the country,” UK head coach Matthew Mitchell said. “They really, really play hard. They had 20 offensive rebounds on Monday night versus Alabama in a big win over Alabama, and they make it very difficult on you to score. They are doing a great job in moving the basketball and moving people on offense, and this will be an extreme challenge for our team.”

Helping the team with 3-point accuracy is sophomore Christa Reed as she is the leader in SEC 3-point percentage at 44.8 percent.  Reed averages 10.9 ppg and ranks sixth in the conference in 3-pointers per game. Along side of Reed is sophomore Rachel Bell who is the only other double-digit scorer for the Commodores averaging 10.3 ppg.

Defensively, junior Marqu’es Webb leads Vanderbilt with 5.3 rpg, pulling down double-digit rebounds in the last two games, including her career-high 13 rebounds in Vanderbilt’s loss to Tennessee. Helping her out is senior Rayte’a Long who is averaging 3.8 rpg and an exceptional shooting performance so far this season averaging 67.5 percent from the floor.

Makayla Epps still leads UK offensively, averaging 16.6 ppg, bringing herself to rank fourth in the conference in scoring. Evelyn Akhator finds herself ranked third in the conference in field-goal percentage at 52.3 and averaging 11.9 ppg. She is also tied for first in the SEC with 9.6 rpg.

Close behind her is Alexis Jennings as she averages 7.1 rpg for the Cats. UK’s third player averaging double-digits in the scoring category is Janee Thompson with 12.4 ppg, while leading the SEC in assists with 5.3 apg.

Vanderbilt is hoping for better luck Thursday than they have had in the past against UK, as it has lost four straight games on UK’s home court.