Lipscomb women overwhelmed by No. 7 Kentucky

Lipscomb was overwhelmed from the opening tip and couldn't keep up with No. 7 Kentucky.
Sophomore guard Chandler Cooper scored a career-high 15 points and was the only Lady Bisons player to reach double figures in a 116-49 loss to the Wildcats on Thursday night.
Kentucky built a 14-3 lead within the first 4:16 and didn't slow down while registering season highs in points, field goals and rebounds.
Lipscomb (0-4) posted season lows in points, field goals (16), rebounds (30), assists (5) and field goal percentage (28.6 percent). The Lady Bisons also finished with a season-high 32 turnovers.
''The best thing is, I have their attention now,'' Lipscomb coach Greg Brown said. ''The little things that you ignore in practice because they got away with it is magnified when you compete against good athletes. The best thing for us is to take this back and prepare for Tennessee State and Murray State as we go along.''
Cooper, a transfer from Florida playing in just her second game for the Bisons, had her share of struggles. She shot just 4 of 14 from the field and fouled out with 6:36 left. Sophomore forward Ashley Southern, who had double-doubles in each of Lipscomb's first three games, finished with nine points and eight rebounds.
''We're a blending team right now,'' Brown said. ''We'll continue to go through that. Kentucky makes you pay for your weaknesses.''
Bria Goss scored 18 points and Janee Thompson had 16 for Kentucky (5-0). Bernisha Puckett added 15 points, DeNesha Stallworth 14, Linnae Harper and Kastine 12 each, Jennifer O'Neal 11 and Samarie Walker had 10 points and 14 rebounds.
Kentucky finished five points shy of the school-record 121 points in a win over Kentucky State on Nov. 24, 1989.
''We wanted to hit triple digits,'' Walker said. ''That was a point of emphasis, but we didn't know what the record was.''
The Wildcats scored a season-high 57 points in the first half and added 59 more during the final 20 minutes. Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell credited his team's defense, which forced 32 turnovers, for setting the pace on offense.
''The goal is to put 40 minutes of pressure on you, not just 40 minutes of defensive pressure, but get an offensive push,'' said Mitchell, whose team scored 40 points off turnovers. ''The offensive push and the push it makes is hard to deal with. You don't see a lot of teams do that. We practice it so hard, we practice it every day. We have a team that's built for it and we have a bunch of young women who come in every single day and run up and down the floor really hard and train to do it. I think it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on people.''
Stallworth scored nine of Kentucky's first 11 points and made her first four shots from the field. Stallworth had seven points during a 12-0 run, turning a 3-2 deficit into a 14-3 lead with 15:37 remaining in the first half.
The Lady Bisons ended a 3-minute scoring drought with a basket by Faith LeGate with 15:16 left, trimming the margin to 14-5, but the Wildcats outscored Lipscomb 43-24 the remainder of the half for a 57-29 lead.
Led by Stallworth, Kentucky outscored Limpscomb 66-14 in the paint, including a 34-8 edge in the first half, and outrebounded the Lady Bisons 57-30.
Kentucky had 22 assists, reaching at least 20 for the third straight game.
''That's almost unheard of,'' Goss said. ''I haven't heard of anything like that before. It shows you where we are as a team right now.''