Murray, No. 16 Kentucky women hold off LSU 57-52

Feb 24, 2019, 09:24 pm

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Taylor Murray scored 18 points and No. 16 Kentucky held on to defeat LSU 57-52 on Sunday for its sixth-straight win.

Murray's 3-pointer and a layup by Ogechi Anyagaligbo had the Wildcats on top 50-34 with less than eight minutes to play. From there, Kentucky would not score another field goal, missing its last nine shots, and would commit three turnovers.

The Tigers scored eight-straight points before Maci Miller made two free throws for UK. Then Ayana Mitchell scored five-straight, giving her seven-straight points for LSU. Rhyne Howard made two free throws at 2:47 to push the Wildcats back up 54-47 but Faustine Aifuma scored five straight, getting the Tigers within two with 1:45 to go.

After Murray made 1 of 2 free throws at the 1:27 mark, LSU had a turnover, two missed free throws and another turnover on a Murray steal. However, the Wildcats had two misses before Murray's steal, which led to her clinching free throws at 16 seconds.

Tatyana Wyatt and Howard had 12 points for the Wildcats (23-5, 10-4 Southeastern Conference) and Morris scored 10. Kentucky shot 37 percent after going 2 of 11 in the fourth quarter but made 7 of 8 free throws in the period to finish 18 of 22.

Mitchell had 19 points and 11 rebounds for the Tigers (16-10, 7-7), who had a 43-27 advantage on the boards, and Aifuwa had nine points and 13 rebounds. LSU shot 36 percent and was only 9 of 22 from the foul line.

The game was the 50th in the series that LSU leads 33-17.