High Point Women’s Basketball Loses at No. 6/7 Kentucky

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The High Point University women’s basketball team lost to No. 6/7 Kentucky, 80-46, at the Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Ky. on Saturday. Junior Cheyenne Parker posted a double-double with 14 points and 16 rebounds.

“Kentucky is the No. 6 team for a reason,” said head coach DeUnna Hendrix. “They are really good and it was 40 minutes of defensive pressure. But there are definite positives to take away. We hung with them in the second half, only losing the half by 11 points. We hung with them on the boards and took care of the ball a lot better in the second half. We have a lot we can learn from this game to get ready for Xavier on Monday.”

Junior Tayler Tremblay added 13 points and three rebounds in her first start of the season and redshirt-sophomore Stacia Robertson chipped in six points.

A’dia Mathies led four Wildcats in double-digit scoring with 17 points. Bernisha Pickett, Kastine Evans and Azia Bishop scored 12 points each.

The Panthers are 1-2 to start the season while Kentucky improves to 2-1.

Senior Erin Reynolds started the scoring in the game with a jumper just two seconds in to the contest. Robertson sunk a pair of layups early to knot the game up 8-8 after four minutes. The Wildcats went on a 16-2 run to open up a 26-10 lead with 8:45 remaining in the half.

Kentucky pushed it lead to 17, 31-14, on a good free throw by DeNesha Stallworth with 5:13 left in the first half. Parker converted back-to-back baskets to close the gap to 13. The Wildcats ended the first half on an 8-0 run to lead HPU 41-18 at halftime.

High Point opened the second half with a 8-0 run to cut Kentucky’s lead to 41-26. Tremblay knocked down a three-pointer to start the scoring, Parker hit a pair of free throws and graduate student Kendra Wallace collected a rebound and drained a three at the other end of the floor. That 15-point deficit was High Point’s smallest of the second half.

The Wildcats outscored HPU by just 11 points in the second half while and outrebounded High Point by just three, 39-33, in the game.

The Panthers wrap up this three-game road trip on Monday at Xavier. High Point will face the Musketeers at 7 p.m. Xavier has had a week off since they lost to Michigan, 62-53, on Nov. 12. This is the second-ever meeting between HPU and the Musketeers. Xavier won the first meeting 78-40 on Dec. 7, 2003.