The University of Mississippi Athletics
Ole Miss
11-5, 1-3SEC
Kentucky
8-7, 1-2SEC
| Team | 1 | 2 | F |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ole Miss | 32 | 34 | 66 |
| Kentucky | 32 | 51 | 83 |
Lady Rebels Drop Tough Road Game To Kentucky, 83-66
1/23/2003 | Women's Basketball
Jan. 23, 2003
Box Score
LEXINGTON, Ky. - The Lady Rebels came out strong in the first half against Kentucky (9-7, 1-3 SEC), but cold shooting from the floor and sloppy ball handling in the second half doomed the Lady Rebels as a hot shooting Wildcat team defeated Ole Miss (11-5, 1-4 SEC) by a score of 83-66.
The Lady Rebels were led by Ashley Johnson's 16 points, 14 of which came in the first half. Carletta Brown was the only other Ole Miss player to score in double figures with 14 points.
Ole Miss shot 35 percent from the floor while Kentucky hit at a 55 percent clip.
"It was a lot like the Georgia game tonight," said head coach Ron Aldy. "We have got to get home and get back to playing basketball. We have to play aggressive and play tough. It was a disappointing effort tonight."
Ole Miss fell behind early in the first half as Kentucky took a 5-0 lead, before the Lady Rebels rattled off a seven point run to take its first lead of the game at 7-5. The two squads battled back and forth trading leads before ending the first period of play tied at 32.
Freshman Ashley Johnson hit a jumper with 23 seconds left to give Ole Miss a two point lead, but Kentucky's Rita Adams nailed a jumper at the buzzer to knot the score at the half.
The Wildcats came out scoring in the first half, taking a four point lead behind the play of SeSe Helm at 36-32. Ole Miss took the lead back with a three-pointer from Tywanna Inmon at the 17:15 mark., but Kentucky answered with a run of its own, stretching the lead back out to 65-51.
The Lady Rebels switched to a full court press during the run to try to get the ball back, but the Wildcats broke the press with ease and continued to add points while Ole Miss went cold shooting from the floor, going more than four minutes without a basket until Marie Deparrois hit a jumper at the 3:11 mark to make the score 69-54.
The play of the frontcourt proved to be the difference as Kentucky's frontcourt accounted for 49 of the team's 83 points. Helm led the way with Sara Potts as the two players put up 17 points each. Jennifer Humphrey added 15 points to go along with 12 points from Rita Adams and 10 points from Kristin Grassi.
"Tonight we felt like we matched up well with them inside, but their post took it right to our post," Aldy said. "We have to learn to fight back and we didn't do that tonight. We're going to have to get that corrected before we face the Crimson Tide on Sunday."
Ole Miss outrebounded Kentucky 36-35, but Kentucky limited the Lady Rebels to one shot and out during the Wildcat run late in the game with 27 defensive rebounds for the game. Ole Miss turned the ball over 19 times, while forcing Kentucky into 18 turnovers.
The Lady Rebels will return to the confines of Tad Smith Coliseum to face Alabama on Sunday. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.
