Some people love math, some people hate it, but the beautiful thing about it is that you always find an answer. Kentucky women’s basketball found out that 2 games in 2 days, turnovers, and a South Carolina team motivated to dominate was big trouble.
Kentucky women’s basketball has a turnover problem
If you take a look back at the Cats’ season, one thing stands out in way too many games.
W Marshall- 18
L Maryland- 20
W Belmont- 17
L Alabama- 20
L Tennessee- 21
L Vanderbilt- 20
L Texas- 23
W Auburn- 17
L South Carolina (today)- 19
That is a staggering
amount of games with at least 17 turnovers, 5 with 20 or more. The fact that you win 2 of those games is impressive. But against quality competition, if you are giving away 17 of your own shots, it is incredibly tough to pull out a victory
Now, the Cats were a little more tired than usual. That Georgia game took a lot out of the Cats, even though they pulled away late, but I can’t say fatigue is the turnover problem when they have done it so much this season already.
And you know South Carolina was going to come into this game ready to unload on a team that held them in check on Sunday. They scored 68 points through 3; they had 60 the entire game in Lexington.
If you were looking for a bright spot, you would be hard-pressed to find one other than Amelia Hassett. The senior was a perfect 5-5 from deep to take over the lead from Asia Boone for most 3-point makes in a single season. It was otherwise a pretty poor performance, but that can happen in tournament play; had the Cats been able to secure a bye, maybe this game would have been closer.
South Carolina runs away 87-64 behind Joyce Edwards’ 21.
Now the Cats must wait to see if they did enough to sneak into the top 16 and host at HMC. When the NCAA revealed its top 16 just before the South Carolina game, Kentucky was not in the mix. ESPN’s Charlie Creme said that with their 2 SECT wins, they were poised to sneak in. With today’s blowout loss, that may have changed.
We will find out Sunday, March 15, at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN when the bracket for the women is revealed. For now, Kentucky can rest up and fine-tune some things (turnovers) heading into March Madness.
