This is a buzz saw.  AKA what UK Hoops ran into tonight.

When I sat in the media room and watched two of Tennessee’s star players bawling their eyes out after losing to Kentucky a few weeks ago, one has to think they went home, cranked up the ELO, put on some crazy lipstick, and circled today’s date.  The Lady Vols dominated every aspect of the game as they whipped UK to snap the streak (first time Kentucky has lost to UT in a major sport this school year) by a convincing margin of 54-91.

The defensive pressure was there, but for the second game in a row the Wildcats could not capitalize on the offensive side of the floor.  To give you an idea of how good the UK defense can be, they forced 19 turnovers and still lost by almost 40.  Their halfcourt offense was almost as bad as Billy’s G’s during his low moments.

Bria Goss led the Cats with 15 points, all of which were in the second half after having to sit early in the first with foul trouble.  A’dia Mathies was smothered with good defense again but still managed to get 12 points.  Bernisha Pinkett was able to add 10 points, but the rest of the team was very quiet.  At one point late in the first half, UT was shooting over 70% from the field to UKs 10% (numbers roughly rounded), but Kentucky managed to stay within 10 points.

The play of the game in my mind came when Glory Johnson decided it was a better idea to spike the ball on a UK defender laying on the floor out of bounds instead of just catching it.  That earned her a technical foul that sent her to the bench early in the first half.  It ended up having little to no impact on the game.  Probably prevented Tennessee from winning by 60.  I only bring it up because every “person” on ESPN talked about how bad of a call it was.  In my opinion, it was one of the best, gutsiest calls an official has made all year.  Johnson could have easily maintained possesion and/or made an easy pass to a teamate to save the ball.  Instead she slammed it on a defensless player laying on the ground.

I’m not happy.  Can you tell?  Matt’s Cats still maintain a 1 game lead in the SEC, but the direction of the team has been going south the last two games.  It’s far from being over, and all that matters is if they can get it together come tournament time.  It’s a quick turnaround for the Cats as they will stay on the road to take on Alabama this Thursday.  An Alabama team that they defeated earlier this season in Memorial 82-68.  It will be another tough road test before the Cats return home on February 20th for a prime time match-up with a Vanderbilt team that blew out the Lady Vols just last week.  That game is set for a 9 pm tip, and could very well serve as a make or break game for a claim in the SEC regular title.