The Kentucky women’s basketball showdown with Tennessee on Monday night was billed as perhaps the biggest women’s basketball game in Memorial Coliseum since UK won its lone Southeastern Conference title over the Lady Vols in 1982.Big game, big crowd and big stakes were on the line.Both teams played big, too. Kentucky stifled Tennessee in the first half with its trademark full-court defense, and UT’s bigs took over inside in the second half.”Everybody laid it on the line,” Tennessee coach Pat Summitt said. “The game could have gone either way.”Like it traditionally has, though, the victory ultimately went the way of the Lady Vols. Final: Tennessee 73, UK 67 in front of a Memorial season-high crowd of 7,126.Big letdown for Kentucky? It depends on who you talk to. Kentucky head coach Matthew Mitchell, for one, wasn’t taking any moral victories in a loss to Tennessee. After leading the Lady Vols for much of the first half and late in the game, he was dejected and disappointed with the results, pointing to a few plays as the difference in the outcome.For him, there was no consolation in coming close to Tennessee.”I am just so disappointed because I believe in the team so much,” Mitchell said. “I believe in those young women in that locker room. I am not mad at them; I am just so disappointed because if they had just done some things that we worked so hard on all year, if we had made some layups and free throws and broken them down better defensively, it may have been different.”Tennessee is a fine basketball team. They are unbelievably talented and our margin for error is very slim, so we have to execute better to beat a team like that, but I do think they are capable.”They were ever so close to making capable and disappointed a reality and jubilation.With the eyes of the nation on a primetime women’s basketball game and the interest of the Bluegrass State nearing an all-time high, Kentucky, for the most part, delivered on what has got it to this point.The Cats played tenacious defense yet again, taking a team that averages just 15.7 turnovers a game and forcing it into 17 first-half turnovers. The fourth-ranked team in the country, led by one of the most quickest guards in the country, looked mystified and confused because of Kentucky. Victoria Dunlap was playing like a woman possessed, scoring the game’s first seven points on a knockdown jumper and a step-back 3-pointer. On one loose ball in the second half, Dunlap poked the ball away, trucked over a Tennessee player and dove on the floor to call timeout.The crowd was roaring; Jennifer O’Neill (nine points) was crossing over people and playing like the future star she’s been touted to be; and A’dia Mathies (18 points) was breaking the Tennessee defense down with slicing drives and back-to-back 3-pointers.After Mathies hit her second 3 in a row to cut a 10-point lead to one with 9:56 to go, dreams of an upset and step to the big stage weren’t just hopes anymore; it was a realistic possibility.Kentucky briefly took the lead three minutes later on a pair of Mathies’ free throws, but Tennessee limited its turnovers in the second half, Shekinna Stricklen took over the game with 18 second-half points and the Lady Vols’ size proved to be too powerful.With seven players standing 6-foot-1 or taller, UT’s length advantage eventually wore down the Cats. The Lady Vols out-rebounded UK 45-23 and scored 38 points in the paint. “I think what we had to do was to be sharp in other areas,” Mitchell said. “The rosters are what they are. They have who they have and we have who we have. That is not going to change.”But Dunlap wasn’t willing to concede the game because of a simple height advantage.”There’s a lot you can do (to overcome that),” Dunlap said. “Boxing out, we missed a lot of box-out assignments. Coach talked about the three things that were going to be a factor in this game were hustle plays, rebounds and turnovers. We weren’t effective on the boards.”UK, quite honestly, played about as good of a game as it could have played against a dominant Tennessee team. Other than shooting 40.3 percent and getting beat up on the boards, there wasn’t much else the Cats could do.Kentucky stood toe to toe with Tennessee.”We can play with anybody in the country,” Mathies said. “We had a chance to win.”Now, can they break through the final wall? Can they go from good to great? Can they finally pull off big games like Monday’s?Because close is no longer acceptable for the Cats from their viewpoint. Close was last year’s Elite Eight run. Close was last year’s near SEC Tournament championship. Close was the thriller at Duke.”It’s not like we’re just here to play,” Dunlap said. “We’re here to win games, too, and not lay down for anybody.”Close is no longer good enough.