Jan. 1, 2008

Box Score |  Notes

CINCINNATI - Freshman star Ta'Shia Phillips registered her eighth double-double of the season with a 16-point, 14-rebound effort to lead the Xavier University women's basketball team to a 51-46 come back victory at Kentucky on Tuesday evening at Memorial Coliseum in Lexington, Ky.  With the win, Xavier's fourth in-a-row, XU improves to 9-4 on the year while the Wildcats slip to 5-8.  

Amber Harris notched her 16^th career double-double with 10 points and 13 rebounds.  Harris also blocked a game-high three shots.  Junior forward Tudy Reed was the third Musketeer in double-figures with 10 points.  

Kentucky opened up its eight-point halftime edge to 12 points, 38-26, with 14:50 left in regulation.  The Musketeers would clamp down defensively though and incredibly held the Wildcats without a field goal for the remainder of the contest.  XU would out-score UK 25-8 the rest of the way and iced the contest with clutch free throw shooting down the stretch.  

The turning point of the game came with the Musketeers up 46-45 with 1:40 to go.  With just over a minute left and the shot clock winding down, XU once again went to Ta'Shia Phillips and she converted on an old-fashioned 3-point play to put XU up by four points with 1:10 remaining. 

UK would cut the lead to three points but Phillips drained a couple of free throws with 15-seconds to go, effectively icing the game and sending XU to its fourth-straight win. 

XU held the Wildcats to a frigid 11.1 percent (3-for-27) shooting in the second half and ended up out-rebounding UK by a 48-to-45 margin after being out-rebounded 25-to-18 in the first half.  XU held UK to a season-low 14 points and ended the game with a 28-to-24 edge in points in the paint.    

Xavier regained a 17-14 lead after Reed buried a 3-pointer at the eight-minute mark.  However, Xavier would go cold and scored only two points over the next seven minutes and UK embarked on a 16-2 run over the next 6:40 to seize a commanding 32-19 lead with one-minute to go. 

XU showed a little fight though, scoring the last five points of the half to cut the Kentucky edge to 32-24 at intermission.   

The Musketeers are back in action on Friday, January 4 when the team welcomes Kansas to Cintas Center.  Game time is set for 6 p.m. and the contest will be televised nationally by CSTV.