Junior Icelyn Elie led all players with 23 points on 9-of-11 field goals and 5-of-7 free throws in Wednesday's win over Kentucky. (MTSU/Bradley Lambert)

Middle Tennessee women’s basketball weathered a tenacious Kentucky defense to pull out just the fourth win in school history over a ranked opponent and tie for the highest opponent ranking of the quartet.

The Lady Raiders defeated the No. 6 Wildcats, 70-58, inside the historic Murphy Center on Wednesday night.

Three of the four ranked-opponent wins have come under head coach Rick Insell, with all three against Southeastern Conference competition.

Middle Tennessee (9-5) earned the first triumph against a ranked foe Feb. 5, 1977, when it defeated No. 6 Tennessee Tech 80-78 in Murfreesboro.

The other two came in the last seven years, as the Lady Raiders handed No. 8 Georgia a 70-62 setback in Athens, Ga., Dec. 7, 2006, and No. 8 LSU a 67-56 loss inside the historic Murphy Center exactly four years ago in 2007.

Wednesday’s win came in front of a season-high 5,186 in attendance, the ninth-largest women’s crowd inside the historic Murphy Center in program history.

Leading the charge offensively for Middle Tennessee was junior Icelyn Elie, a Preseason All-Sun Belt Second Team honoree, with 23 points on 9-of-11 field goals and 5-of-7 free throws.

She was joined above the 20-point plateau by sophomore Ebony Rowe, the Preseason Sun Belt co-Player of the Year and Lexington, Ky., product with her eighth double-double of the season and 24th of her career with 21 points and 12 rebounds. Rowe has now posted a double-double in both of her meetings against her hometown school, converting 7-of-10 field goals and 7-of-8 free throws in the victory.

Junior Kortni Jones dropped in four 3-pointers among her 15 points, while handing out a game-high six assists and swiping a game-best four steals. She played the full 40 minutes, as did sophomore Laken Leonard, who grabbed six defensive caroms, collected three steals and chipped in four points.

The Lady Raiders shot a season-high 86.4 percent (19-of-22) from the charity stripe and outrebounded the Wildcats, 39-38, against a team that entered the contest with a +8.2 margin on the glass.

Kentucky (11-2) was led by Bria Goss’ 12 points, the lone player to reach double figures. She only made 4-of-14 field goals and 4-of-9 free throws for her team-leading total, as the Lady Cats were held 14 points below their season-low point total, while shooting a season-worst 32.3 percent from the floor.

A’dia Mathies topped UK with eight rebounds but the Wildcats suffered from behind the arc, only connecting on 2-of-18 (11.1 percent) attempts.

The game started with multiple turnovers by both teams, as neither was able to get into an offensive rhythm. Kentucky had six miscues and Middle Tennessee had three entering the first media timeout at 15:49 with a 0-0 deadlock. After the short break, Keyla Snowden tossed in a pair of free throws to put the first points on the board and give the Lady Cats a 2-0 edge.

Sloppy play caused by aggressive defense on both ends continued until Jones hit her first triple to give her team a 3-2 lead at 14:31. The squads traded buckets and Snowden’s trey at 10:52 forced the game’s only tie at 9-9.

From there, the Lady Raiders used an Elie layup and two free throws from freshman Shanice Cason to grab a 13-9 lead and never look back. Samarie Walker quickly cut the deficit in half, but an old-fashioned three-point play from Elie increased the lead to five, 16-11, with 9:26 remaining.

Goss made the back-end of a two-shot foul at 5:41 to cut the MT advantage to four, 20-16, Cason capped a 7-0 Lady Raider spurt with a 3-pointer to give Middle Tennessee a 27-16 edge with 3:20 left in the first period. Goss dropped in a layup at the other end, but Jones answered with another 3-pointer to make the margin a dozen, 30-18.

Another 7-0 Lady Raider run during the final two minutes helped send Middle Tennessee into the locker room ahead 15, 37-22, tying for the second-largest halftime lead this season.

The Wildcat defense picked up its pace early in the second half, causing problems for the Lady Raiders.

After an Elie bucket started the period, UK used a 7-0 run itself to trim the margin to 10, 39-29, with 16:52 to go. Six missed MT shots aided the Lady Cats’ cause before Elie ended the drought with a layup at 15:25.

Kentucky continued to push defensively, while using an old-fashioned three-point situation from Mathies and points from Maegan Conwright, Goss and Bernisha Pickett to pull within five, 44-39, at the 10:35 mark. It was the closest the Wildcats had been in 15 minutes.

Elie’s old-fashioned three-point play a minute-and-a-half later preceded a Rowe layup and Middle Tennessee was able to make it a 10-point difference once again, 49-39. Kentucky, however, did not quit, and sliced the margin to five two more times, the last coming on Azia Bishop jumper for a 53-48 score with 5:42 left.

After a Mathies free throw with 4:47 remaining made it a 57-49 contest, the Lady Raiders reeled off an 11-2 run, featuring a pair of Jones 3-pointers, to put it out of reach at 68-51 with 1:36 left. Conwright hit two free throws, Pickett added UK’s only other triple and Walker contributed a jumper to close the Wildcat scoring down the stretch with the last Middle Tennessee points coming via a pair of Rowe charity tosses with three seconds left.

The game put an end to the Lady Raiders’ non-conference campaign, as they will enter Sun Belt play full time starting at noon Saturday against South Alabama.