PREVIEW: UK Hoops travels to Columbia to take on No. 8 South Carolina

@MaggieDavisKSR

After a dominate 78-57 victory over Arkansas Thursday, the Kentucky women's basketball team looks to stay in the win column this afternoon. The team is back on the road to play No. 8 South Carolina inside Colonial Life Arena. The Gamecocks have won seven straight games against Kentucky, including their 81-64 defeat over the Wildcats earlier this season. The Cats fell to the then-No. 10 South Carolina inside Rupp Arena back in January. Junior Maci Morris scored 19 points and Taylor Murray added 17, but the duo was not enough to overcome South Carolina's 60 percent field-goal shooting. In order to compete with the Gamecocks today, Kentucky will need to recreate their balanced offense from last Thursday. Against Arkansas, the Cats had five players score in double figures: Morris joined Alyssa Rice, Keke McKinney, Tatyana Wyatt and Dorie Harrison. UK had the 32-7 advantage in bench points and a 38-12 edge in points in the paint. On the defensive end, the Wildcats will have their hands full with the reining SEC Player of the Year A'ja Wilson, who is averaging 22.5 points per game and adding an average of 11.6 rebounds. On the season, she's shooting 54.9 percent from the field. Wilson is currently on the watchlist for National Player of the Year - she needs just 36 more points to hit 1,000 points in SEC regular-season games. Coach Matthew Mitchell knows the road ahead is a tough one. "Victories right now are important there is no doubt about that, but we have a very difficult final three games," Mitchell said. "Two out of the three are against top ranked teams that are at the top of our conference and then another road game. So it is a difficult stretch." Luckily, the Cats found some mojo during their shoot around this morning:

The last time we hit two halfcourt shots to end shootaround we won. ? #BelieveInBlue pic.twitter.com/I54TtPLWXO
— Kentucky WBB (@KentuckyWBB) February 18, 2018

The game is USC's annual Pink Game for breast cancer survivors. Tip is set for 3 p.m. and can be seen on the SEC network. Check back in following the game for more UK Hoops coverage!