NASHVILLE, Tenn. — When the Kentucky women’s basketball team entered halftime with a 33-11 lead, head coach Matthew Mitchell knew his team would have to remain focused in order to hold off an explosive Vanderbilt team. The Wildcats are a young team that has shown a propensity to lose focus at inopportune times, so Mitchell wanted to keep his team on task to open the second half.”We were excited about the defense at halftime, but we had just gone in and tried to talk to them,” Mitchell said. “The danger with this team is that we lose intensity.”At least for the first two four-minute segments of the second half, the Wildcats did not let up.”We just tried to talk about we would love to see the same kind of intensity and win the firstfour-minute segment; we did that,” Mitchell said. “We won the second four-minute segment and were really feeling good. We thought if we could win the third one, it would be just outstanding.”Kentucky didn’t and Vanderbilt mounted a furious rally.At the end of that second segment, Kentucky held a 49-22 lead and had absolutely dominated the action. With a matchup against Tennessee in the final looming the following day, Mitchell subbed out stars A’dia Mathies and Victoria Dunlap in quick succession. With an inexperienced group on the floor for UK, Vandy started its comeback.”Anytime a team can drive the ball as well (Vanderbilt), post up as well, shoot 3s as well, and they’re so explosive offensively, you don’t feel as a coach they’re ever out of it,” Mitchell said.When Dunlap eventually returned to the game with 7:56 remaining, the Wildcats’ lead had been cut from 27 to 18. With her running mate Mathies sidelined with a tight back, Dunlap was unable to stem the tide single handily. With 3:07 remaining, the Commodores closed to within eight on a layup by Jasmine Lister.Dunlap and the Wildcats recognized their problems and remained confident about securing a victory.”There weren’t any worries,” Dunlap said. “I think we were really not focused as a team and together on the court. There were miscommunications on a lot of things. We just knew we had to stay together as a team and just know that what we were doing with our fundamentals had to get better and we just had to stay focused.”UK cannot afford such an extended letdown against Tennessee, the Southeastern Conference’s best, but Mitchell is still pleased with the fact that his team earned a victory on the strength of some first-half defense that was among the best of the season for UK.”Just a tremendous win for us today,” Mitchell said. “I’m so proud of our players. (They) turned in some unbelievable defense today against a really good Vanderbilt team.”