Kentucky moves to 5-0 on the year with 76-44 road win against Marshall

by: Phoenix Stevens11 hours agoPStevensKSR

kentucky-moves-to-5-0-on-the-year-with-road-win-against-marshall (1) — Photo of Kentucky guard Jordan Obi by UK Athletics

Kentucky has beat up on their first four opponents of the season for the most part, but on Saturday, Kenny Brooks‘ team would partake in arguably their toughest game of the year to this point, taking on the Juli Fulks-led Marshall Thundering Herd out in Huntington, WV. On paper, this was going to be a bit more of a battle compared to some of Kentucky’s other games they’ve already played.

Despite being in enemy territory, Kentucky would end up getting the 76-44 win over Marshall as the Cats moved to 5-0 on the 2025-26 season.

This one could not have gotten off to any slower of a start as both teams were a combined 1-17 (6%) from the field to begin the game. Kentucky’s size and length was bothering Marshall, and Marshall’s quickness and physicality was bothering Kentucky.

Late in the first quarter, Clara Strack went down with what appeared to be a lower leg injury, but after a quick trip to the locker room, she was back out on the floor to begin the second period of play. Clearly, this team rallies around her emotionally. With her back in, the offense got better. Not much better, but better.

Strack would finish the game with 15 points and 13 rebounds while logging 26 minutes of play. She looked and played like she was 100% after the injury incident, so let’s not call it an injury anymore.

At the break, Kentucky led 36-17, and again, it was because of the stellar defense. It’s nice to see that even when this team is a bit cold offensively, they can hang in there on the other end of the floor. This was also the first time this season Kentucky had really seen a press, which played a big part in the offensive woes.

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Once again, Kentucky’s defense was phenomenal, holding the Thundering Herd to just 14-50 (28%) from the field with only three assists on the day. Jordan Obi made her presence felt on the scoreboard, putting up 17 points on Saturday.

Juli Fulks and her squad put up quite the fight against Kentucky. They should contend in the Sun Belt. Now, the Cats move on to their first major conference foe of the year.

Next up on the schedule is the Purdue Boilermakers back in Historic Memorial Coliseum on Tuesday. Last season, the Cats beat Purdue 82-52 in West Lafayette. Kentucky’s biggest game of non-conference play thus far will tipoff at 7 p.m. ET on SEC Network.