It was the ladies that took center stage tonight for their annual “Battle of the Bluegrass”. It was a very physical battle between two very good defensive teams. The Cards blow a 14 point lead in the end and lose on a last second 3 point shot 48-47 to the Cats.

Coach Jeff Walz: “It went in. It was a good shot, we just didn’t have our hand up. It doesn’t even come down to that. We go 3 of 6 in the last 2:30 from the free throw line. We gave them the ball game. Our kids played hard as can be, I thought they competed, did a great job.”

Both of these teams came out and played a very tough and physical basketball game. Neither of them were able to get anything going early on. Shoni Schimmel was able to get things going about midway through the first half for the Cards when she hit a couple of big outside shots. The Cards would take a lead into halftime 23-18. They came out after the half and it looked like they were going to put this one on cruise control. That’s the way most of the recent battles between these teams had ended. But not this one. The Cards were unable to hit some big free throws down the stretch. The UK defense would toughen up and their freshman player Janee Thompson would come alive scoring all of her 13 points in the second half. She scored the final 6 points for the Cats including the 3 pointer that was the game winner.

Shoni Shimmel lead the Cards tonight with 13 followed by Sara Hammond with 12. Antonita Slaughter had a big night on the glass grabbing 9 rebounds. This was a heart breaking loss as they all are when you lose to your biggest rival but I was very impressed with how physical this team plays and how aggressive they are on the defensive end of the floor. The season is still very young and there is a lot of basketball left to play. I have no doubt that this team will be right in the middle of things in March.