UK notches record fifth straight SEC win with victory over MSU

The venue was different, but the result was the same.

The No.23 Cats (18-3, 6-2 Southeastern Conference) used a late 12-0 run to pull away from the Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs (14-8, 5-4 SEC) for a 69-59 win on Sunday afternoon in Starkville, Miss.

The win is the Cats’ second consecutive road win, after they upset No. 19 Louisiana State on Thursday thanks to a 14-5 run to end the game. UK has now won five SEC games in a row, a school record.

With UK leading 56-53 with less than five minutes to play, the Cats pulled away from the Lady Bulldogs with a 12-0 run sealing the victory.

Junior Victoria Dunlap led the Cats in scoring and rebounding for the second straight game,  as she collected 19 points and 12 rebounds.

The first half was a low-scoring affair that saw the Cats trailing 27-26. Much like the score, the teams’ statistics were virtually identical. However, UK, which has usually beaten teams in turnover margin this season, had committed 15 miscues by halftime, five more than MSU.

MSU relied on the strong play of senior guard Armelie Lumanu. The native of the Democratic Republic of Congo had 10 points and six rebounds without being substituted once in the first half.

But, the second half was not as kind to Lumanu, who managed just one more point and one more rebound in 16 minutes of playing time. Meanwhile, the Cats committed just three more turnovers in the second, and ultimately decisive, half.

Notes from the game:

The head coaches in this game both had connections to each other’s school. UK head coach Matthew Mitchell was a 1995 graduate of MSU, while Sharon Fanning-Otis was the head coach of UK from 1988-1995 before taking over the same post for the Lady Bulldogs.

The Cats return home for their next game against Mississippi on Thursday.