LOUISVILLE —  Nothing seemed to be working for the Indiana Girls’ All-Star Team at Freedom Hall on Friday.

Despite having a substantial size advantage over its Kentucky counterpart, Indiana missed easy shots in the paint, got outrebounded and fell to Kentucky, 75-47.

“They just worked harder than us,” Jeffersonville graduate and Indiana All-Star Lakin Roland said. “I think they wanted it more. We haven’t been very offensively effective these past three games, so hopefully we can turn it around the next game.”

Kentucky grabbed 45 boards to Indiana’s 36, including a 19-to-14 advantage on the offensive glass. The Indiana squad coughed up 25 turnovers, 12 coming on Kentucky steals.

“Two things we were most concerned about tonight — rebounding and taking care of the basketball,” Indiana coach Scott Krieger said. “We did neither of them well, and that’s the primary reason we got beat the way we did. Kentucky is a very athletic team. Even though we’ve got a pretty substantial size advantage, they beat us to the basketball on too many occasions.”

Kentucky and Indiana battled fairly evenly through the first 10 minutes of the first half, but the next 10 belonged to the hosts.

With Kentucky already ahead 20-18, the Bluegrass squad came out of a timeout and went off for 13 straight points. Kentucky’s 5-foot-10 Miss Basketball, Sydney Moss, scored 12 of her 14 points in the first half, including six during the run.

The run spanned nearly five minutes, and was finally interrupted when 6-foot-5 Nariah Taylor of Indiana hit a jumper to bring the run to a merciful end with Kentucky ahead 33-20. After battling evenly the rest of the way, Indiana trailed 39-27 at the break.

The second half didn’t go any better for Indiana. Kentucky opened the second half on a 9-0 run during the frame’s first three minutes, finally interrupted by a Roland free throw. But Kentucky steadily pulled away throughout the frame as it held Indiana to 7-of-27 field-goal attempts in the second half.

“The times we were able to punch it inside, we were only marginally successful,” Krieger said. “We scored a lot of our points inside. We didn’t have a single 3-pointer. We only took five the whole night, but the goal was to punch it inside and try to score from there, and we got some good looks. But also we were pretty miserable from the free-throw line. We missed a lot of bunnies, chippies inside.

“So just about everything that we could have done wrong, we did. And our preparation was spot-on for the things we needed to be able to do. Our execution was simply not good enough.”

Roland finished the game with three points and four rebounds, playing in 14 minutes of action. Despite a tough time on the court on Friday, Roland said her experience as an Indiana All-Star has been positive.

“It’s great. It’s an honor to be here, and they treat us so well,” Roland said. “We eat well, we travel well. I’ve had fun with all my teammates. The coaches are all very nice and experienced, so I’ve had a great time.”

Indiana will get the chance to avenge its loss to Kentucky tonight at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.



INDIANA    27 20—47

KENTUCKY    39 36—75

    Indiana — Rupright 2, Sims 12, Taylor 5, C. Moore 7, A. Moore 1, Gregory 12, Roland 3, Johnson 5.

    Kentucky — Moss 14, Whitfield 3, Noble 9, Wilson 6, L. Wright 12, Bodine 3, Elder 7, Jones 3, Ch. Roush 2, Co. Roush 2, Soldo 6, K. Wright 8.

    Rebounds — Indiana 36, Kentucky 45.

    3-point field goals — Indiana 0; Kentucky 4 (Wilson, L. Wright, Bodine, Elder).

    Steals — Indiana 8, Kentucky 12.

    Turnovers — Indiana 25, Kentucky 16.

    Assists — Indiana 11, Kentucky 11.

    Blocks — Indiana 5, Kentucky 2.

    Free throws — Indiana 13-24, Kentucky 27-38.