Kentucky junior guard Rhyne Howard, ESPN's top-ranked women's basketball player at midseason, missed the Wildcats' 80-73 victory Sunday against Vanderbilt with a left ankle injury and is listed as day-to-day.
Howard, who leads the No. 12 Wildcats and is second in the SEC in scoring at 20.4 points per game, is also tops for Kentucky in assists (3.7) and is second in rebounding (7.1).
Howard was on the bench Sunday wearing a boot on her foot. The Wildcats, 10-3 overall and 3-2 in the SEC, next play Thursday at Auburn, which is 5-7 and 0-4 in the league.
The Wildcats also had three players out of Sunday's game due to COVID-19 protocol: guards Robyn Benton, Jazmine Massengill and Kameron Roach. Junior guard Blair Green led Kentucky with 22 points. "We went into the game saying, 'No excuses,'" coach Kyra Elzy said. "We had enough to win. We have to be resilient; we have to be tough. And we showed that we could do that. We could have folded, but we didn't."