MORGANTOWN — Kentucky women’s basketball didn’t win its conference championship. The Wildcats were the only ones in the West Virginia Regional not to win. Head coach Kenny Brooks wasn’t worried that his team wouldn’t have momentum heading into the game because:
“Do you know what conference we played in?” Brooks said in response to a question about being worried his team didn’t win its last game out.
Brooks was right. The Wildcats didn’t start slow at all in their first game since losing to South Carolina in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. No. 5 Kentucky jumped out to a massive lead and then coasted to victory over No. 12 James Madison, winning 71-56.
Kentucky is set to face the winner of No. 4 West Virginia or No. 13 Miami (OH). The second round game will also be in Hope Coliseum on Monday, March 23, with the tipoff time to be determined.
“We came out and were ready to roll,” Brooks said. “That was one of the things I was a little nervous about because we hadn’t played in two weeks.”
Brooks’ squad looked like it took the “no momentum” personally and came out swinging in the first quarter. Kentucky went on multiple runs with JMU not answering, and was up 32-10 after the first quarter. The Wildcats shot over 60% from the floor and made four threes. It was one of the most impressive first quarters from Kentucky this season.
“We just came out with that mentality that it’s win or go home,” Stack said. “I think we had to start fast. We have to do things like that.”
The Wildcats’ top players led the early charge. Guard Amelia Hassett drained back-to-back 3-pointers to start the game, and first team All-SEC forward Clara Stack had a layup, starting a 13-0 run.
Guard Tonie Morgan led the team with 18 points. Hassett finished the game with 14 points. Stack had a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 14 rebounds.
Morgan was shaken up for a little while in the game and limped to the bench with a cramp. She missed a couple of minutes but was right back in the game and helped extend the lead in the fourth.
“We got our game under our boots, and that won’t happen again,” Morgan said. “Gonna get hydrated and be ready for the next.”
The offense quieted down significantly after the first. In the second quarter, Kentucky went on a stretch where it couldn’t register a basket for four minutes, shooting 1-for-10. JMU cut into the lead, but it just wasn’t enough to overcome the massive first-quarter deficit.
Throughout the rest of the game, Kentucky kept around a 20-point lead over JMU. The closest the Duke came was in the fourth quarter. JMU’s guard Peyton McDaniel drained a 3-pointer, making it a 16-point lead. But Kentucky answered right back on a 3-pointer from Morgan, shutting down any late surge.
To overcome the large first-quarter blow, JMU had to make some big 3-pointers, but the Dukes couldn’t get anything to go. JMU was 3-for-17 from deep, and one of them came as time expired.
Kentucky’s defense, which was the third best in the SEC, held the Dukes to shoot 33.8% from the floor and forced 16 turnovers. JMU is one of the better teams defending the glass, but were outrebounded 46- 38 and had 13 offensive boards.
The Wildcats will now face either the Mountaineers or the RedHawks, who are both heavily defensive teams. Brooks said he kept some cards close to his chest, knowing the caliber of coaching up next.
“We kept it very vanilla,” Brooks said. “When you got great coaches like Mark (Kellogg) and Glenn (Box) sitting there watching your calls, you’re not going to run everything.
