By Thomas Corhern, TTU Sports Information
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Tennessee Tech gave Missouri a scare last week at the Daytona Beach Classic. Now the Golden Eagle women's basketball team will head up to Lexington looking to knock off Kentucky on Sunday.
The game is scheduled for a 12 p.m. Central tipoff at Transylvania University's Clive M. Beck Center with renovations to UK's Memorial Coliseum seeing the Wildcats splitting time at Transy and Rupp Arena. Roger Ealey will have the call on 106.1 The Eagle, while Maggie Davis and Bria Goss will narrate the action on SEC Network+ (available on ESPN+ with a cable subscription including SEC Network).
Sunday's game is the 16th meeting all-time between the two teams and the first since 2017. Kentucky holds an 8-7 advantage in the series with Tech last winning in 1989.
With Kyra Elzy at the helm for her fourth season, her coaching staff has two coaches with Tennessee Tech connections as Niya Butts was an assistant coach under Bill Worrell as the team claimed regular-season championships in 2001 and 2002, and Crystal Kelly had two seasons as a member of Kim Rosamond's staff in 2016-17 and 2019-20.
Kentucky enters the game with a 3-5 record after a Thursday night 83-81 win over Boston College as the Wildcats got four double-digit scoring performances, led by Eniya Russell's 21-point outing on 7-of-13 shooting with 7-for-9 at the free-throw line. Ajae Petty also scored 17 points, while Maddie Scherr added 13 and Saniah Tyler chipped in 11 with Kentucky only playing seven players in the contest.
The Wildcats shot 51.6 percent from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range with seven long-rangers falling. UK was 12-for-17 at the line. Boston College led nearly 26 minutes of the contest, outscoring the Wildcats in the first and third quarters, but Kentucky outscored the Eagles 22-17 in the fourth quarter to claim the two-point win.
Petty gave Kentucky a four-point 81-77 lead with 1:50 left in the game, but Boston College answered with a 3-pointer on the other end of the court, then hit the front-end of a pair of free throws with 10 seconds remaining to knot the game at 81. Russell hit a layup as time expired to give Kentucky the victory.
The win broke a five-game losing streak for the Wildcats as they dropped all three games in the 2023 Paradise Jam in the Virgin Islands, falling 84-55 to N.C. State, 96-53 to Colorado and 65-41 to Cincinnati. Before the tournament, UK lost 59-48 to Florida Gulf Coast and 68-63 to Austin Peay.
Kentucky's other two wins on the season came with a 74-66 victory over ETSU and an 82-54 win over USC Upstate.
Scherr leads the team in scoring, averaging 14.0 points per game, while Petty averages 13.3 and Russell 9.9. Petty also leads the Wildcats in rebounds, pulling down 9.1 boards a game. Brooklyn Miles leads the team in assists with 3.5 assists per game.
As a team, Kentucky is shooting .387 from the floor, while opponents are shooting .472. The Wildcats average four 3-pointers a game as they are shooting .232 on the season beyond the arc. UK does spend a lot of time at the line, averaging 14.6 made free throws per game and shooting .672 at the stripe. Through their first eight games, they have shot 174 free throws, 21.8 per game.
The Wildcats are averaging 16.3 turnovers per game, but just 5.6 steals in response.
The Golden Eagles, meanwhile, broke their four-game slide to begin the season and have won back-to-back games to enter Saturday's contest with a 2-4 record.
As a team, Tech is shooting .427 from the field, .360 from long-range with an average of 6.7 3-pointers per game and .681 at the free-throw line.
Maaliya Owens leads the team in scoring with an 11.7-point average, while Reghan Grimes and Reagan Hurst are both close to double-digits with a 9.5-point average. Grimes leads the team in rebounding with a 4.7 average, while Cayla Cowart averages three assists per game to lead the team.
After defeats to Ball State (97-64), Chattanooga (70-45) and Alabama A&M (62-56 in overtime) to open the season, the Golden Eagles played well at the Daytona Beach Classic, taking Missouri to the brink in a 66-65 loss, then claimed their first win with a 65-59 victory over Stetson. Tech came home Wednesday for an 84-57 win over Lincoln Memorial.
In the last outing, Grimes led the way with 20 points and six rebounds, while Anna Walker scored 12 points and collected six boards.
After the Golden Eagles' trip to Lexington, Tech returns home for three straight games as it hosts Middle Tennessee on Dec. 10, Tennessee Wesleyan on Dec. 14 and Northern Kentucky on Dec. 18.
Tickets for Tennessee Tech basketball are on sale now – call (931) 372-3940, visit the Hooper Eblen Center ticket office or order online at TTUsports.com.
Photo | Jim Dillon
