Lady'Backs outshot at home against UK

FAYETTEVILLE – Senior guard Sheree Thompson scored her season best against a Southeastern Conference opponent to lead the University of Arkansas, but her 13 points wasn’t enough against the University of Kentucky as the Lady Razorbacks lost, 79-50, at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.

The loss drops the Lady Razorbacks to 13-11 on the year and 5-6 in Southeastern Conference play while Kentucky improves to 17-6 overall and 6-4 in conference action. Arkansas’ loss is its fifth in a row in SEC games.

“It was one of those days, and we hadn’t had one of those in a long time,” UA head coach Susie Gardner said. “They (UK) played exceptionally well and not to take anything away from them, but we played poor today. We had no one that could hit a shot, and it was exceptionally frustrating. We tried rotating players, we couldn’t get a shot to fall and it added up to one of those days.”

Hurting Arkansas from the outset was its inability to hit the three-point shot. Knocking in two of its first three, the Lady Razorbacks hit just five of their next 20, with most of them coming in the final moments. Arkansas’ low three-point shooting percentage was just a microcosm of the whole game where it connected on just 29 percent of its shots, compared to 54 percent for the visiting Wildcats.

Down from the opening tip, Arkansas fought back to take its first lead of the game at the 14 minute mark when Dominque Washington hit one of Arkansas’ opening moment three pointerrs. She would knock in another jumper moments later and give the Lady Razorbacks a three-point lead and spur an 11-2 Arkansas run. At the time that Arkansas was hot, Kentucky was ice cold, going scoreless for nearly five minutes, but once again the Wildcats would find their shot and coming storming back.

Tied at 18, Kentucky’s Jenny Pfeifer was fouled on a three-point attempt by Arkansas’ Leslie Howard giving her three chances at the charity stripe. Knocking down all three of her attempts, she would give the Wildcats the lead with 7:29 to go, a lead they would not relinquish.

“We had an outstanding crowd, but he had drought after drought and we didn’t give them a chance to be a part of the game,” Gardner said. “We’re upset that we disappointed them.”

The Lady Razorbacks were streaky all afternoon in their shot attempts which included a six-minute scoring drought froom the floor that spanned the half. The lack of Arkansas scoring gave Kentucky the opportunity to go on an 18-2 run and grab a commanding 17-point lead.

For Arkansas, Thompson would lead the charge off the bench with 13 points on 4-7 from the floor and 3-5 from three-point range in 11 minutes of action. Kentucky got double-digit efforts from four players including Carly Ormerod who lit up Bud Walton Arena’s rims for 18 and Eleia Roody who hit for 17. Roody would also grab 11 rebounds for the game’s only double-double.

The Lady Razorbacks are back in action next Sunday afternoon when they take on LSU in Baton Rouge, La., at 2:00 p.m. For more information about Lady Razorback basketball or about Arkansas women’s athletics, please go to www.ladybacks.com.