No. 25 Kentucky Heads West to Face Montana, Washington State
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 25 University of Kentucky women’s basketball team will hit the road for the first time this season as it travels west to play two games against Montana and Washington State. The road trip starts Thursday at 9 p.m. ET at Montana (0-1) before UK travels to Washington State (0-2) for a 4 p.m. ET tip on Sunday.
Thursday’s game will be streamed live on BigSkyConf.com (possible subscription required) while Sunday’s game will be televised on the Pac-12 Network. Both games can be heard on the UK Sports Radio Network with Darren Headrick on the call. Free audio and live stats from both games will be available on ukathletics.com.
Kentucky (2-0) moved into The Associated Press Top 25 this week at No. 25 after starting its season with two wins over Sacramento State and Gardner-Webb inside Memorial Coliseum. UK used an impressive offensive performance against the Hornets, scoring 100+ points for the 17th time under Matthew Mitchell. Junior guard Taylor Murray paced the Wildcats with 22 points, adding five rebounds and three assists. Makenzie Cann scored 17 points in the opener hitting four 3-pointers as UK shot 50 percent from the field and 45 percent from long range in the game, getting 48 points in the paint and 36 bench points.
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| Kentucky at Montana | ||
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Thur., Nov. 16 – 9 p.m. ET |
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TV: BigSkyConf.com |
Against Gardner-Webb on Sunday, UK showed its defensive ability holding the Runnin’ Bulldogs to just 34 points on 25.5 percent shooting. UK won the battle inside with a 42-8 advantage in points in the paint and 28-0 advantage in bench points. Junior guard Maci Morris recorded her first career double-double in the win, posting 10 points and a career-high 10 rebounds. The Wildcats went on two separate 19-0 runs in the game and held GWU without a field goal for two different nine-minute stretches.
Kentucky’s newcomers shined over the weekend as all five played and scored Friday paced by freshman Tatyana Wyatt, who scored 13 points with two rebounds while fellow freshman post Dorie Harrison scored 10 points and nine rebounds. In all the newcomers scored 57 points in the two games.
Murray leads Kentucky in scoring early on averaging 15.0 points , 4.5 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game. Cann is second on the team in scoring at 13.5 points per game after hitting a team-best six 3s in the early going. Morris is averaging 11.0 points and 7.0 rebounds per game.
Montana started its season Monday night with a 67-62 loss at Wyoming. The Lady Griz won both exhibition games they played this preseason taking down Carroll 55-48 before a 70-46 win over Black Hills State.
Against Wyoming, the Lady Griz shot 39.7 percent from the field, 15.8 percent from 3 and 81.3 percent from the free-throw line. Junior guard Sierra Anderson and sophomore guard Madi Schoening were the leading scorers as both posted 14 points with Schoening adding two steals and four rebounds. Sophomore guard McKenzie Johnston and junior forward Jace Henderson each scored in double figures with Henderson leading the way with eight rebounds.
The Lady Griz went 7-23 and lost in the opening round of the Big Sky Tournament last season. Head coach Shannon Schweyen lost two quality players to injury last season in Kayleigh Valley and Alycia Sims, both expected to be back and add a great deal of experience to the Griz’ 2017-18 team. On top of those two, the Griz return their top seven scorers from last season.
This is the first ever matchup between Kentucky and Montana in women’s basketball. Kentucky played its first ever game against a team from the current alignment of the Big Sky Conference in its season opener Friday against Sacramento State. Montana is the last Big Sky Conference opponent on Kentucky’s schedule this season.
For more information on the Kentucky women’s basketball team, visit UKathletics.com or follow @KentuckyWBB on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, or Kentucky Women’s Basketball on Facebook.
Kentucky WBB News Conference
Memorial Coliseum Media Room
Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2017
Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening Statement …
“It is an exciting trip to be able to take. Montana has over the years developed a really awesome environment for women’s college basketball. It will be a great crowd and it will be a hostile environment in the best kind of way because they have enthusiastic fans and great fan support. It will be a great test for our team to go on the road and into that kind of environment. They have a team with a lot of really good athletes and a lot of really good basketball players. They are tough, hardnosed and well-coached. The challenge will be great there at Montana. And then we had a terrific game with Washington State last year here in Memorial Coliseum. It went right down to the wire and was a really tough game and they have a lot of players back and they are well-coached and talented as well so I am sure they will be ready to roll on Sunday. A challenging trip for us but one we are excited to take. I am looking forward to seeing the beauty of that area of the country and seeing if we can make some progress as a basketball team while we are on the road.”
On going on the road with a team this young …
“Beforehand, preparation is important just from a logistical standpoint, making sure they have all the information that they need so it is a low-stress trip and they hadn’t forgotten things and just trying to walk them through that. Amy Tilley and our support staff are really great at things like that. We are really organized and ready to go on the trip. You don’t want self-inflicted difficulties because you have been irresponsible and slowed the team down. So you have to make sure about that. From a basketball perspective we are really approaching it the same way we would if we were home. We have improvements that we need to make, a lot of improvements. I am excited and encouraged by what we can become but we are not there yet. Every day and every time you have a chance to take the floor and get a little bit better you need to seize that opportunity and make the most of it. So from a basketball standpoint we are really seeking daily improvement because that is where we need to be right now.”
On being ranked in the AP Top 25 and if that is a sign that others see this team has potential …
“That is entirely possible. I spend zero time on that because it has zero impact on our daily improvement. You win games, you play well, you handle your business, all of that stuff takes care of itself. That is the furthest thing from our mind right now.”
On Tatyana Wyatt’s availability …
“She will not make the trip. She had a concussion sustained in gameday practice Sunday morning. Just much better for her to advance through the protocol without having to get on a flight and flying across the country. She can stay here and her and Ogechi (Anyagaligbo) will both be here so that will be good they have some companionship. Katy Poole is just a terrific athletic trainer for our volleyball team and just a great friend of our program and friend of us so she will keep an eye out on those two. As soon as Tatyana starts to make progress through the protocol we are capable of doing that here back home and really feel like it will be more effective for her. Where she stands right now, there was really no chance she would play Sunday so we feel like it is best for her to stay home and make the progress she needs to make and we are optimistic she’ll progress and be back on the court soon.”
On Paige Poffenberger’s availability …
“Paige will be going. We will be traveling 12 Wildcats with us with Ogechi and Tot back here on campus.”
On Kyra Elzy missing the last two games with a family matter …
“Yes, Kyra will be staying home and Amber will be handling coaching duties on the trip. It is just a process with the NCAA where if you have a family emergency or like Coach Dunn, who had knee replacement surgery, so if something urgent takes you off the court that you have to handle you have the capability to elevate someone on your staff temporary until some of that clears up. We feel like when we get back Kyra will be ready to roll when we return from this trip.”
On the team losing its first five road games season …
“Oh my goodness, I am so glad I have such a poor memory. But know you have reminded me, I had no idea about that stat. It had not entered my mind. Now I have something else to worry about on the trip. I was having a pretty good day up until this point (laughter). I hope it doesn’t take us five games, I hope we get our first one up there Thursday night against Montana. You have to do the work. You have to go through the work. Our team has to earn it. There are so many areas where we are making progress but there are still so much that needs to happen. You just have to have unwavering commitment to the fundamentals of the program that you know will work. And you have to have unwavering faith in your players that they are capable of eventually executing it at a level that gives us a chance to be a championship-level team. That is always the goal here at Kentucky and we have been tremendously consistent over a long period of time and able to get that done and I believe that this team will be able to get that done. But there is not shortcut to it. Just because you have had success in the past, it doesn’t guarantee any success in the future. So we tried to win all those road games last year and it took us to the fifth one evidentially to win one and that team ended up being a really tough team and one of the top 15 teams in the country so we will get there. Hopefully we experience some success on this trip, but this is going to be so beneficial for us in so many ways and we are going to try like heck to win tomorrow night.”
On winning two different games this weekend and how valuable that is …
“I don’t know that there is a lot of value in that for our young team because there is just so much they are trying to learn and put together. I think the veterans did a nice job on Friday night of kind of stabilizing the game when we were playing a lot of young players and it was trending in the wrong direction. I thought the veterans really came in and stabilized that game and moved it in the right direction. A lot of young players contributed an awful lot this weekend too. The newcomers are literally just out there play-to-play trying to get better. But I do believe we are a team that has some versatility so when we are healthy we can sort of match you with you bigs if that is what you have or we can throw in a four-guard lineup that could possibly take advantage of some situations there. I do think we are a versatile team and I do think we have the ability to play whatever style is necessary to win. I can tell you the theme that we are trying to make sure the team understands and what we are trying to engrain into the team is that we want tempo to be a factor. We want pace and intensity to be a factor. We want to be the kind of team where you know it is going to be a tough game. We are going to do everything that we can to push tempo and use the tremendous athletic gifts that we have to our advantage. I think you want to try to get good at what you do and see if you can become the kind of team that can impose your will from a tempo standpoint. That is what we are trying to develop now with our team. We aren’t there, but we are trying to develop that.”
On if he has a sense in games of when it is necessary to go more toward the veterans to stabilize things …
“Yeah, I think the young players, there resilience has not developed and I really think it is something you have to learn and you have to practice. You have to practice the art of bouncing back. You have to start to recognize, ‘my energy level is dropping because I am feeling down about whatever play just happened’ and you have to recognize those and move forward. We have had the ability over the years to teach that. So Jaida Roper is very different right now than she was 365 days ago just because we are talking constantly. Over a year now she has been here and you have to react in certain situations. If there is a negative situation you have to react this way, you have to bounce back and have to have resilience. So you do see the freshmen sometimes have not been in those situations. What they did worked but now it doesn’t work and they have to deal with that emotionally and technically. So you can see it and they are great teaching moments. But also you need to realize where your experience can help you in those moments. Sometimes an experienced player can weather some difficulties this time of the season much better than a freshman can, but our freshmen are picking up on it and are getting there. They will get there, they are really high-character people so they will do fine with that. But it is something that we will have to learn.”
On if he was surprised at Maci Morris’ double-double Sunday …
“I am really not. I have always had tremendous respect for Maci’s game. I don’t know what it was about her coming out of high school that people kind of pegged her as a one-dimensional player. I never felt that way about her. When I really became aware of her in her freshman and sophomore year of high school, you could tell she was the kind of player that could sense what her team needed and go and do what was needed. She always wanted the ball at the end of the game. I saw her miss some game winners and loved the way that she handled that at an early age. She has always had a great sense of what a team needs. I got after her and challenged her Sunday morning because her effort to rebound and to defend at the level that I am expecting of her was not there Friday night. It was not consistent enough. And then in practice Saturday, we showed some film trying to get ready for Gardner-Webb because I thought it would be a challenge to try to get ready for them in one day. And she really just has that ability and is a very conscientious player. She wants to win and might be the most competitive player we have. We have some competitive people, but she wants to win. I told her what I thought she needed to do and she just goes out there and does it. She really went from not boxing out at all – I shouldn’t say that, I am bad to say that, I am trying to work on that – she probably boxed out some but not at the level that I was expecting to really giving a superb effort Sunday afternoon and nine defensive rebounds. We complimented her yesterday in front of the team. That is a tremendous quality to have to be coachable – that is another attribute of our program that we really want players to be. And there was the definition of it there to go out there and get nine defensive boards because you were being tough and boxing out. Those were not freebies, they were not falling into her hands, she had to work for them. Maci doesn’t surprise me, I have tremendous respect for her and I think when she is locked in and really focused on what she needs to do she is an outstanding player.”
On KeKe McKinney’s development …
“What I love about KeKe is that her intangibles are so strong that it allows her to contribute right now. I am telling you, she will be an incredible player here when everything kind of catches up. I think she is going to be a monster player here when she really gets stronger and gets in the program for a year or two of more strength and mobility and agility and quickness. All those kinds of things that you can improve over time. I think she is just going to be fantastic. Her intangibles are so strong. Her intelligence is off the charts. Her desire, her coachability, all of that (is great). I think she has a real confidence about her ability that helps her function at this point in time while she is not all there together physically – it just takes time for a young player to get there – but she is doing a really good job and working really hard. She is making a big impact on our team and will continue to make a big impact on our team this year. I know she will make a really big impact on our team this year in a positive way. But that is going well and it is going to be difficult and take a lot of work and a lot of reps. It is going to take a lot of hard work and she has got to get lower and handle the ball better. But she indicates all the qualities you need from a work ethic standpoint to become whatever she wants to become here.”
