Heading into Thursday night, I said it, you guys said, NKU probably said it: Kentucky’s size was just too much. It took exactly one quarter for that physical reality to completely overwhelm the Norse.
The Wildcats stormed out to a massive 25-3 lead after the opening frame and never looked back. While the offense experienced some notable growing pains as the game wore on, Kentucky leaned on a suffocating, relentless defensive effort to secure a 79-28 blowout victory at Historic Memorial Coliseum.
Kentucky’s
defensive effort bordered on historic. The Wildcats completely dismantled Jeff Hans’ pace-and-space offense, holding Northern Kentucky to just 14% shooting.
The Norse managed to make just six total field goals across 40 minutes of basketball; that’s pretty good, folks.
Part of what made Kentucky great was the rebounding.
The Wildcats womanhandled the Norse in the paint, pulling down 60 total rebounds as a team.
Clara Strack anchored the frontcourt with a double-double, 11 points and 10 rebounds, while Me’Arah O’Neal and Ajša Sivka added 12 and 11 points.
After struggling to find her stroke early in the season, Boone sank her first three-pointer of the year on a friendly bank shot after missing her first 8 3’s.
That was all the momentum the senior guard needed. She then knocked down four more from deep, finishing with a game-high 21 points on 5-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc. Boone also added six rebounds, nearly outscoring the entire Northern Kentucky roster.
Overall, four of Kentucky’s five starters reached double figures. But not all news was good for Kenny Brooks.
Rebounding was elite; shot-making was not
The good news is that Kentucky crashed the offensive glass relentlessly, pulling down 28 offensive boards to create a massive 79 field-goal attempts.
The bad news is that the Wildcats only connected on 27 of those shots. That’s right, they had more offensive rebounds than made shots. They also shot just 34 percent overall.
For one night, the defense carried the load.
But Brooks and his staff will undoubtedly use a third-quarter offensive lull and overall lack of shotmaking as a major teaching point over the next 48 hours.
Kentucky has to find its shooting consistency fast, because the competition level skyrockets this Sunday when the No. 25 NC State Wolfpack welcomes Kentucky to the Ally Tipoff down in Charlotte at 3 PM on ESPN2.
