Three takeaways from No. 19 Kentucky’s women’s basketball loss at No. 5 Tennessee

For the fourth time this season, the Kentucky women’s basketball team went on the road to play an elite program.

And for the fourth time this season, UK was saddled with a loss.

Despite holding a six-point lead at the end of the first quarter, UK was outscored by 17 in the second as Tennessee took control inside Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville.

Rhyne Howard was excellent offensively for the Wildcats on Sunday, but not enough Wildcats around her contributed as the early UK lead morphed into another lopsided road loss.

Tennessee 84, Kentucky 58

The star: Rhyne Howard came out and hunted shots on Sunday, finishing the game with 24 points. Tennessee’s Rae Burrell, recently back from a knee injury, had a great game off the bench with 14 points and four made three-pointers.

The stats: Only Jazmine Massengill with 13 points joined Howard in double figures for UK.

The status: Tennessee improved to 17-1 overall and 6-0 in the SEC. Tennessee is the only team still undefeated in SEC play. Kentucky fell to 8-5 overall and 1-2 in the SEC.

Three takeaways

1. RHYNE HOWARD COMES OUT AGGRESSIVE, POWERS UK OFFENSE.

It’s fair to say that before Sunday’s game, Rhyne Howard had been kept in check by the elite opponents UK had played on the road this season.

The star senior guard had averaged just 13.7 points per game in those previous games against top-10 foes — 23 points against Indiana, nine against Louisville and nine against South Carolina.

Howard bested that average by halftime against Tennessee. She came out with an aggressive mindset, taking six first-quarter shots and accounting for 14 of Kentucky’s 27 first-half points.

She finished the game with 24 points, going 11-for-21 from the field.

Entering the game against the Lady Volunteers, Howard had averaged 20.5 points per game for her career against ranked teams.

That number will go up after Sunday.

2. TENNESSEE DOMINATES ON THE GLASS.

The undersized Kentucky team has struggled to rebound the ball in SEC play this season.

UK was outrebounded 38-24 by Georgia in a home win on Jan. 6 and 55-37 by South Carolina in a road loss on Jan. 9.

Entering Sunday’s game, Tennessee led the SEC in rebounding (50.5 per game) and featured three of the conference’s top 10 rebounders in Jordan Horston (9.9 per game), Tamari Key (8.8) and Alexus Dye (7.9).

The Lady Volunteers’ team rebounding average also ranked first in the country — by more than a full rebound — as of Sunday afternoon.

“We’ve battled size all year, and we’ll continue to battle size,” Kentucky Coach Kyra Elzy said before Sunday’s game. “One thing we have to commit to is rebounding by committee. It’s just not one person. Everyone has to get in the action. One thing we’ve been harping on (is) five people to the defensive boards.”

On Sunday, the Lady Volunteers had a 50-29 rebounding advantage over the Wildcats despite Key exiting the game with an apparent ankle injury in the first half.

This means that through three SEC games this season, UK has been outrebounded by a combined 143-90 margin; 17.7 more rebounds per game are going to UK’s opponent.

3. IT’S JANUARY, AND UK STILL HASN’T WON ON THE ROAD.

Kentucky has a case for playing the most difficult road games of any team in the country so far this season.

UK’s road contests have come at Indiana, Louisville, South Carolina and Tennessee, who all currently rank in the top six of the most recent Associated Press Top 25 poll.

Prior to Sunday, the games against Indiana, Louisville and South Carolina were played in front of an average crowd of nearly 10,000 fans, most of whom obviously were rooting against the Wildcats.

“We’ve played some tough road games, but it will make us better in the long run, and it has,” Elzy said prior to Sunday’s game. “But some things that we’ve learned (from road games) is your margin of error is just so small.”

Elzy referenced the missed free throws and layups from UK’s road loss at No. 1 South Carolina as examples of scoring opportunities that Kentucky must take advantage of in tough road environments.

UK went 5-for-11 from the free-throw line and 11-for-32 on layups in the South Carolina loss.

“You have to be able to make those (free throws and layups) on the road in a tough environment and playing the caliber of teams that we are playing,” Elzy said.

Sunday against Tennessee, Kentucky made four of its eight free throws and nine of its 13 layups.

But even more noteworthy was UK’s struggles shooting the ball from distance against Tennessee, as the Wildcats made just four of 18 three-point attempts.

Up next

UK’s next scheduled contest comes Thursday night at Memorial Coliseum against Florida, which is currently 13-5 overall and 3-2 in conference play. Entering Thursday’s game, Florida has won three straight games, all conference contests, over Texas A&M, Auburn and Alabama. UK won by eight at Florida last season during the regular season, and the Wildcats also defeated the Gators in the second round of last year’s SEC Tournament.

Over the weekend, it was announced that UK’s game at Auburn — originally scheduled for Dec. 30 before COVID-19 issues in the Auburn program forced it to be postponed — will now be played on Jan. 25.