Emily McDonald Sets Kentucky Record With Nine 3s as No. 12 Kentucky Routs Evansville 98-30

LEXINGTON, Ky. Three days after Ajša Sivka tied the Kentucky record for 3-pointers in a game, a freshman took the record outright. Emily McDonald came off the bench and made 9 of 12 shots from deep, all of her field goals coming from beyond the arc, as No. 12 Kentucky buried Evansville 98-30 on Wednesday, Nov. 11, at Historic Memorial Coliseum.

McDonald finished with 27 points in 21 minutes, the best scoring night of her young career. Junior forward Me'Arah O'Neal added 18 points and eight rebounds on 6 of 7 shooting, Sivka scored 12, and senior center Clara Strack had 11 points, three assists and three blocks. Kentucky moved to 4-0. Evansville fell to 0-3.

Here is the ESPN box score (opens in a new tab), Kentucky's recap (opens in a new tab) and Kentucky's postgame notes (opens in a new tab).

The record changed hands in 72 hours

The backstory makes McDonald's night even stranger. On Sunday in Charlotte, Sivka hit eight 3-pointers against NC State to tie Rhyne Howard's school single-game mark, scored 32 points and was named both the USBWA National Player of the Week and the SEC Player of the Week for it. Kentucky also made 18 3s as a team that day, tying the program record.

On Wednesday, Kentucky did it again. The Wildcats went 18 of 39 from deep for the second straight game, tying the team record once more, and McDonald supplied half of them by herself. Sivka's share of the individual record lasted three days.

According to UK Athletics, Kentucky is the only SEC team since at least the 2002-03 season to have two different players make eight or more 3-pointers in a game in the same season, and the first SEC team with two games of 18 or more 3s in one season. McDonald is the fifth freshman in SEC history to make at least nine 3s in a game, and her nine are tied for the second most by an SEC freshman.

McDonald is part of a freshman class ranked No. 6 by ESPN, per UK Athletics. Through the first three games, though, McDonald's shots had not come in bunches. "I haven't really been shooting the ball super well," McDonald said. Coach Kenny Brooks put it more bluntly. "Proud of Emily for coming out because it's like she couldn't throw the ball in the ocean," Brooks said, before adding, "A week later, she breaks the record."

Against Evansville she went 9 for 12 from 3 and did not attempt a 2-pointer or a free throw. She fell three points short of Evansville's full-game total.

A first half that ended the suspense

There was no slow start to sit through. Collins opened the scoring with a fast break layup, Boone hit a corner 3, and McDonald knocked down two 3s in the first quarter, the second of which made it 21-7 after 10 minutes.

The second quarter belonged to O'Neal. She scored all 11 of Kentucky's points in the first 3:12 of the period, and Strack capped a 14-0 run with a 3 of her own. Sivka added back-to-back 3s, McDonald hit another before the break, and Kentucky led 46-11 at halftime. The 35-point halftime cushion was Kentucky's largest of the season, per UK Athletics.

Kentucky's pace never dropped after the break. O'Neal and Boone hit 3s early in the third quarter, the Wildcats won the period 30-11, and they took a 76-22 lead into the fourth. McDonald then hit consecutive 3s to tie the record, and her ninth pushed the score to 89-24. Kentucky led by as many as 70 points before settling for 98-30.

The 68-point margin was the fifth largest in program history and the largest since 2015, according to UK Athletics. The school also said this is the first time Kentucky has won three games by 40 or more points in its first four, and the first time since March 2015 that it has scored at least 93 points in consecutive games. The 98 points were a season high.

O'Neal and the efficiency up front

McDonald took the headlines, but O'Neal was the most complete player on the floor. The junior made 6 of 7 shots, including 2 of 3 from deep, and all four of her free throws, adding eight rebounds, three assists and a block in 20 minutes. On most nights, that line leads the team.

Strack did a little of everything in 19 minutes. She made 4 of 7 shots, hit a 3, and added three rebounds, three assists and three blocks. UK Athletics said before the game that Strack led the SEC and ranked second nationally with 12 blocks, and after Wednesday's three, she needs 16 more to tie the program's career record.

Sivka, a first-year guard, was nearly perfect again, going 5 of 6 from the floor and 2 of 3 from deep for 12 points in just 18 minutes. Senior guard Asia Boone added three 3-pointers and a team-high four assists among the starters, and Diana Collins chipped in six points, three assists and a block.

The numbers that tell it

Kentucky shot 37 of 67 from the field, 55 percent, and 46 percent from 3. It made all six of its free throws. More telling was the passing: the Wildcats assisted on 27 of their 37 baskets and committed only five turnovers all night, a 27-to-5 ratio that would look good against anyone.

Evansville never found a rhythm. The Purple Aces made 10 of 46 shots, 22 percent, went 3 of 18 from 3 and turned it over 16 times. Kentucky won the rebounding battle 39-23 and finished with 10 steals and seven blocks. Every Kentucky opponent so far has shot under 40 percent, and three of the four have been held to 30 percent or worse, according to UK Athletics.

Jayden Scott led Evansville with 14 points, making 6 of 8 free throws, and Avery Kelley added eight points, five rebounds and four assists. The ESPN box score lists only six Evansville players who saw the floor. Kaiden Kreinhagen played all 40 minutes, Scott and Marina Artero played 38 each, and Kelley logged 37.

Savvy Swords and the second unit

Brooks started Collins, Boone, Sivka, O'Neal and Strack for the fourth time in four games, and that group is 4-0. Nobody in it played more than 23 minutes, and the bench did the heavy lifting.

Freshman forward Savvy Swords, the first player off the bench for the fourth straight game, led Kentucky in minutes with 26 and filled the box score without needing to score much. She had six points, a game-high 13 rebounds, four steals and four assists, and four of her rebounds came on the offensive glass. Freshman guard Maddyn Greenway handed out eight assists without a turnover in 23 minutes, the most of anyone in the game, and added three steals. Ayanna Patterson added four points and six rebounds, Jemma Amoore hit a 3, and Gabby Brooks got four minutes of run.

All told, Kentucky's bench outscored Evansville by itself, 42-30, and McDonald accounted for 27 of those points. Eleven Wildcats played, and six of them made at least one 3-pointer. Brooks framed that balance as the point. "We celebrate each other's successes, and that's a recipe for success at this level," Brooks said. McDonald said much the same thing: "I think on any given night any one of us could go off." Sivka put it even more simply: "The whole bench has your back."

What it means for Kentucky

Four games in, Kentucky looks like a team with more than one way to beat people. The defense carried the first two wins, Sivka carried the NC State game, and on Wednesday a freshman off the bench took her turn. Kentucky lost three starters from last season to the WNBA Draft, and the depth chart Brooks has built to replace them is already producing records.

Brooks is now 52-19 in his third season at Kentucky, and his teams are 19-1 in November games, per UK Athletics. The all-time series with Evansville is now tied 2-2, with Kentucky winning the last two.

The Wildcats get two more home games before a tougher stretch. Kentucky hosts Eastern Michigan on Sunday, Nov. 15, at noon ET on SEC Network, and Marshall on Friday, Nov. 20. After a trip to Daytona Beach for games against Maine on Nov. 27 and South Dakota State on Nov. 28, Kentucky hosts Clemson on Dec. 3 and Louisville on Dec. 9, both at Rupp Arena. Evansville plays at Eastern Illinois on Saturday, Nov. 14.

For more on how the season started, read about Clara Strack's six blocks in the opener against Morehead State and Asia Boone's five 3s against Northern Kentucky.

Sources: ESPN box score, UK Athletics (recap, postgame notes, postgame quotes and game preview), Associated Press.

Photo: UK Athletics.