Kentucky, for a while, seemed poised to coast in its Southeastern Conference Tournament opener.The Wildcats, after allowing Vanderbilt to score the game’s first basket, reeled off 16 straight points to build a big lead.Things wouldn’t be so easy though.”Sometimes when you get off to a hot start, it all kind of unravels on you, you don’t get it back,” Matthew Mitchell said.It unraveled in the form of a 23-8 run by Vanderbilt to close the first half. The spurt gave the Commodores a 25-24 lead heading to the break. The Cats made just 3-of-14 shots to allow Vandy to charge back into the SEC Tournament second-round game.”I think we lost our defensive intensity because we weren’t scoring on the offensive end,” Bria Goss said. “We had to refocus and regroup at halftime.”That’s precisely what the sixth-seeded Cats (22-8) did en route to a 67-61 victory on Thursday night. UK would build a lead of as large as 12 points in the second half, coming alive offensively in the process.At the center of it all was Jennifer O’Neill. The senior guard – who has three times played on teams that lost in the SEC Tournament finals – had three points and three turnovers in shooting 1 of 8 from the field in the first half. After the break, she would score 16 of her game-high 19 points. “I was more aggressive,” O’Neill said. “I told my team, I apologized, I was settling for jump shots instead of attacking the basket or getting fouled or getting other people involved. That was really it, just changed my mindset.”That mindset spread to the defensive end as well, including on a vital charge she drew with less than four minutes remained. At that point, Vandy had climbed to within 58-51 and Jasmine Jenkins was driving to the basket intent on cutting the lead to five, but O’Neill made a play. “I tell you the biggest thing for Jennifer right now is she is affecting the game defensively,” Mitchell said. “When we’re good, she really, really turns up the defense and does a great job. Bria is always there, always a rock defensively. Jennifer has become that, too, for us in this time of success for our team. That’s what we’ll need from her more than anything (Friday), just a real focus.”Third-seeded Mississippi State (26-5) will be the next test of that focus on Friday at approximately 9:30 p.m. ET. Kentucky took down the Bulldogs in double overtime three weeks ago in Lexington behind 42 points and a buzzer beater by Makayla Epps.The game was actually somewhat reminiscent of Thursday’s win over Vandy with the way it went back and forth.”Well, we really were clicking in the first half, built a sizable lead,” Mitchell said. “I remember we lost focus there at halftime. The first five minutes of the second half was really dominated by Mississippi State. Went back to an 11-point lead, then they came back again. We played some really good basketball against them in stretches, and they played some really good basketball against us in stretches.”With a short turnaround, the Cats will work to maximize their own stretches of good basketball.”We’ll just mentally prepare,” Mitchell said. “We’ll ask for tremendous focus and we’ll ask for them to understand what they need to do. That’s the responsibility part of what they really need to do tomorrow night to win, then go out and execute it.”