Even with the SEC’s leading scorer Taliah Scott missing her fifth straight game with a back injury, the Arkansas women’s basketball team found a way take down Kentucky 88-61 at Bud Walton Arena Thursday night.
The Lady Razorbacks (15-6, 3-3 SEC) had only eight scholarship players available, but still managed to score 24 of their points off of 21 Wildcat turnovers. Scott did return to practice this week, and will possibly return to game action on Sunday.
Graduate guard Makayla Daniels led five Arkansas players in double-figure scoring, knocking down a game-high 22 points, along with six rebounds, seven assists and four steals. Sophomore Karley Johnson made in her first career start with a career-high 14 points.
The Razorbacks also avenged an early-season loss to the Lady Wildcats (9-11, 2-4 SEC), who won their previous matchup in Lexington, 73-63, on Jan. 4.
Daniels started the game on fire, making back-to-back layups, to give Arkansas an 8-0 lead, before Kentucky called a time out with 6:13 left in the first quarter. After a Maryam Dauda layup, Daniels splashed back-to-back triples to boost the lead to 18-0. The Wildcats finally scored almost seven minutes into the game.
The Hogs took a 44-34 lead into halftime and continued to roll in the second half.
Arkansas outscored Kentucky 22-15 in the fourth quarter, and led by as many as 29, following a second-chance driving layup by Daniels.
Dauda finished with 16 for the Razorbacks, followed by Johnson and Carly Keats with 14 each, and Samara Spencer with 13.
Arkansas will hit the road again Sunday with a trip to Missouri for a 2 p.m. tip-off, to be aired on SEC+.