LEXINGTON, Ky.—University of Southern Indiana Women's Basketball suffered an 87-56 exhibition setback to the University of Kentucky Sunday evening at Memorial Coliseum.
 
Senior guard/forward Kaydie Grooms (Marshall, Illinois) had a game-high 20 points to lead the Screaming Eagles, while junior forward Kacy Eschweiler (St. Charles, Missouri) finished with 15 points and a game-high tying six rebounds.
 
Kentucky, which used a 19-3 run to end the half, was led by junior guard Maci Morris's 19 points. Fellow classmate Taylor Murray added 11 points, six rebounds and a game-high six assists for the Wildcats, who were 30-of-59 (.508) from the field.
 
USI, which shot 18-of-52 (.346) from the floor, was out-rebounded 39-25 and had 27 turnovers, including 18 in the first half.
 
The Eagles open the 2017-18 regular season Friday at 6 p.m. when they host Midwest Region foe Northwood University at the Physical Activities Center.
 
1st Quarter
USI jumped out to a 7-2 lead early in the contest and led 14-11 with just under five minutes to play in the period; but a 15-4 Kentucky run throughout the final 4:16 of the period allowed the Wildcats to end the frame with a 26-18 advantage. Grooms had 12 points to lead all scorers after going 2-of-2 from the field in the first quarter.
 
2nd Quarter
After seeing its lead shrink to six points on a few occasions early in the second quarter, Kentucky outscored the Eagles 19-3 throughout the final 8:30 of the period to head into the intermission with a commanding 47-25 advantage.
 
The Eagles went just 3-of-11 (.273) from the field in the second period and were 1-of-4 from the charity stripe after going 11-of-13 from the free throw line in the first 10 minutes of the contest.
 
3rd Quarter
USI fell behind by as much as 25 early in the third quarter, but a 13-5 surge allowed the Eagles to trim a Kentucky's lead to 58-41 with 3:30 to play in the period. Kentucky, however, outscored USI 9-3 throughout the final 2:30 of the third quarter to take a 67-44 lead into the final 10 minutes of the contest.
 
Grooms scored seven points in the third quarter to lead the Eagles, who went 8-of-20 from the field while holding the Wildcats to just five field goals. Kentucky, however, went 10-of-12 from the charity stripe in the third quarter.
 
4th Quarter
Kentucky had three 4-0 runs as well as a 5-0 surge to finish the game with an 87-56 win over the Eagles. Eschweiler had eight points in the final 10 minutes to lead the Eagles, who were held to 4-of-13 (.308) shooting in the fourth quarter.
 
USI Coach Rick Stein's Postgame Comments
"I thought we did a lot of positive things tonight; there were so many good things we can take away from this experience. We could have practiced for 15 hours and not got out of it what we did tonight. Execution was a big factor and their run in the second quarter can be attributed to not taking care of the ball."
 
"We forced 22 turnovers and had 14 steals against a Kentucky team that is in the top 30 of the country. When you put a team on their heels like we did a times tonight it makes you feel good about your pressure defense heading into the regular season.
 
"Turnovers hurt us tonight, but I thought we were pretty effective when we didn't' turn the ball over."