Freshman guard Emily McDonald set a Kentucky single-game school record with nine 3-pointers and scored a team-high 27 points as No. 12/10 Kentucky defeated Evansville, 98-30, Wednesday night at Historic Memorial Coliseum in Lexington. The 68-point margin was the fifth largest margin of victory in program history and the largest since 2015, when the Wildcats also won by 68, as Kentucky improved to 4-0 and Evansville fell to 0-3.
McDonald went 9-of-12 from the field with every one of her shot attempts coming from behind the arc, and she became just the fifth freshman in SEC history to make at least nine 3-pointers in a single game. Her nine made 3s are tied for the second most by a freshman in conference history.
“Proud of Emily for coming out because it’s like she couldn’t throw the ball in the ocean,” Kentucky head coach Kenny Brooks said after the game. “She was shooting the ball and then coming back to her, and she was shooting it again, but laughing because she was missing. A week later, she breaks the record. It just goes to show you what a great shooter she is, how much confidence she has in herself, and, more importantly, how much confidence her teammates have in her.”
“I think just the first one goes in and then the rest follow, that definitely felt good,” McDonald said. “Honestly, I just like to give credit to my team for just finding me, and Maddyn did a good job of finding me in transition.”
Kentucky won the opening tip, and Diana Collins scored the first points of the night on a fast-break layup after a steal. Evansville answered with a jumper in the paint from Avery Kelley to tie the game at 2-2, the only tie of the night, as the Aces never held a lead. Clara Strack blocked two shots in the opening two minutes, Asia Boone knocked down a 3-pointer, and layups from Ajša Sivka and Strack pushed the Wildcats ahead before Kelley hit a 3 at the 4:26 mark to pull Evansville within six. That was the final basket of the quarter for the Aces, as McDonald hit two 3-pointers, including one off a turnover with 40 seconds left, and Savvy Swords added a layup to close the period on an 8-0 run, 21-7.
Me’Arah O’Neal took over to begin the second quarter, scoring all 11 of Kentucky’s points in the first three minutes and 12 seconds on 4-of-4 shooting from the field and 2-of-2 from the free-throw line, converting two three-point plays along the way. Strack followed with a 3-pointer, and after a Kelley layup accounted for one of only two Evansville field goals in the quarter, Sivka connected on back-to-back 3s, Strack added a jumper and McDonald buried a 3 off a turnover with 1:11 remaining. Evansville scored just four points in the period on 2-of-13 shooting, and Kentucky took its largest halftime lead of the season into the break, 46-11.
The Wildcats poured in 30 points in the third quarter, opening the half with a Strack jumper, a 3 from O’Neal, a 3 from Boone and an O’Neal layup off a turnover to stretch the lead. Jayden Scott gave Evansville its best stretch of the night with back-to-back 3-pointers and four free throws for nine points in the quarter, but McDonald answered with three 3s in the final four minutes, the last coming with two seconds left, while Boone added another from deep to send Kentucky into the fourth quarter ahead, 76-22.
Kentucky’s 19-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters continued as McDonald hit her seventh and eighth 3-pointers, and Scott ended the run with a jumper in the paint at the 6:46 mark. McDonald then hit her record-breaking ninth 3 on the next Kentucky possession, Swords added a layup, and Jemma Amoore knocked down a second-chance 3-pointer at the 3:45 mark to give the Wildcats their largest lead of the night at 70 points. Evansville closed the game at the free-throw line, with Kelley and Scott combining for the Aces’ final four points, and Scott’s two free throws with 38 seconds left accounted for the final margin, 98-30.
O’Neal, a junior forward, finished with a season-high 18 points on 6-of-7 shooting, including two 3s, and went 4-of-4 from the free-throw line while adding a season-high eight rebounds, three assists and a block. Sivka, a first-year guard, added 12 points on 5-of-6 shooting with two 3-pointers, and Strack, a senior center, contributed 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting with one 3 and three blocks, with both players logging fewer than 20 minutes. Strack now needs just 16 more blocks to tie the Kentucky career record. Swords, a freshman forward, led the team in rebounding for the second time this season with a season-high 13 rebounds, to go with six points, four assists and a team-high four steals, while freshman guard Maddyn Greenway dished out a team-high eight assists and added three steals and a block. Boone chipped in nine points on three 3-pointers.
Kentucky shot 55.2% from the field on 37-of-67 shooting and 46.2% from 3-point range on 18-of-39, matching the single-game school record for made 3-pointers for the second straight game after also hitting 18 on 46.2% shooting against NC State. The Wildcats became the first SEC team ever to make at least 18 3-pointers in two games in the same season, and the second SEC team ever, along with Missouri, to do it three times all-time, with the third coming against Mississippi State in 2025. With Sivka making eight 3s against NC State and McDonald making nine against Evansville, Kentucky also became the only SEC team since at least 2002-03 to have two different players make at least eight 3-pointers in a single game in the same season.
“You know, Ajša held part of the record for a whopping two days,” Brooks said. “I don’t know if that’s going to be motivation for Sunday to try to get back up top, but we just have such a good group. We celebrate each other’s successes, and that’s a recipe for success at this level.”
McDonald said the shared success is part of what makes the group work. “Everyone wants everyone to do good,” McDonald said. “I think on any given night any one of us could go off. Like it happened to be my night. The other night it was Ajša’s, and honestly like that record is probably going to get broken again, and we just all want each other to do well.”
Sivka pointed to the support from the Kentucky bench. “The whole bench has your back,” Sivka said. “No matter how you’re shooting, playing, you just know you have the six men right there, and looking at them and looking at the videos back it’s just an amazing feeling.”
The night produced several more program marks for Kentucky. It was the first time the Wildcats have shot at least 53.0% from the field in consecutive games since Dec. 15, 2018, the first time they have scored at least 93 points in consecutive games since March 20 and 22, 2015, and the first time in program history that Kentucky has recorded three 40-point wins within the first four games of a season. Kentucky finished with 27 assists on 37 made baskets, outrebounded Evansville 39-23, outscored the Aces 36-12 in the paint and 26-2 in points off turnovers, and received 42 points from its bench while going 6-of-6 from the free-throw line and committing just five turnovers.
Evansville shot 21.7% from the field on 10-of-46 shooting and 16.7% from 3-point range on 3-of-18, marking the third time in four games this season that Kentucky has held an opponent to 30% shooting or under, and all four Kentucky opponents have shot under 40.0%. Scott led the Aces with 14 points on 3-of-10 shooting, including two 3-pointers, and 6-of-8 from the free-throw line, while Kelley added eight points, five rebounds and four assists. Mireia Mustaros and Marina Artero each scored four points, with Artero grabbing four rebounds. Evansville committed 16 turnovers, which Kentucky turned into 26 points.
Kentucky started Collins, Boone, Sivka, O’Neal and Strack for the fourth time this season and is 4-0 with that lineup, and Swords was the first player off the bench for the fourth time. The Wildcats are 3-0 at home in 2026-27 and evened the all-time series with Evansville at 2-2, winning the last two meetings. Kenny Brooks, in his third season at Kentucky, improved to 52-19 with the Wildcats and 569-223 in his 25th season as a head coach, and Kentucky is now 19-1 in the month of November under Brooks.
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