Matthew Mitchell

Chasity Patterson

Rhyne Howard

Nashville, Tennessee

Mississippi State 77, Kentucky 59

THE MODERATOR: We are joined by Kentucky.

We’ll open with a statement from Coach Mitchell.

MATTHEW MITCHELL: Well, the long SEC season, a tough SEC tournament, I’m just real proud of our team. They fought hard. Starting in January, fought hard today. Just came up short.

But real, real proud of how hard everybody’s worked over the course of the SEC season. We are proud of our team and looking forward to what is to come in the NCAA tournament.

THE MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Rhyne, the big first quarter, seemed like they adjusted defensively. What were they doing defensively to try to keep you from putting up bigger numbers?
RHYNE HOWARD: They really just focused in on me and tried to just limit my touches, like just mainly trying to stop what I was doing. Leaving my teammates, just making sure I wouldn’t get hot.

Q. Chasity, towards the end of the third you come up with a steal, cuts the lead to 49-47. Looks like you have the momentum. They go on a run. What happened there?
CHASITY PATTERSON: Definitely made a big play right there, trying to start the momentum, get the momentum. They came back and pushed the pace. We couldn’t really get the ball stopped. They were kind of putting it down our throat on transition.

We definitely tried to get the momentum off that steal. We had a couple of big plays right there, tried to change it up, get us going.

Q. Rhyne, Sabrina has been a vocal leader for you all year. How much of an impact did it have not having her in the second half?
RHYNE HOWARD: Not having her was a loss of another threat that we usually have beyond the arc and defensively. But she was still on the bench telling us what we could do, what she was seeing. She was still there for us. But we did lose a threat.

THE MODERATOR: Ladies, thank you for your time.

We’ll continue with questions for Coach Mitchell.

Q. What was the scouting report on Yemiyah Morris? What impact did she have in the game?
MATTHEW MITCHELL: Well, she’s such a big body. If she can get around the basket, she can really get some stuff done. I thought she played a terrific game.

We just allowed too many deep catches for her. You can see her physical presence is a problem for anybody. When you let her get the catch that deep she really did a good job.

I thought she was aggressive. It’s just tough getting our post players, we’re a little banged up right now, trying to get around, in front if they’re deep, trying to push them out. We were just about half a step slow today, couldn’t get it done. We were trying like heck, worked real hard. She did a whale of a job, a really good job.

Q. Walk me through what happened as far as the injury to Sabrina, what it did for your team.
MATTHEW MITCHELL: I think it was kind of knee-to-knee contact, caught her on the inside of her knee. We’ll have to evaluate her. I don’t really have an update or report on that.

Obviously she was not able to go in the second half. We’re certainly hoping it’s not a long-term thing, that she can bounce back. We have some time here before the NCAA tournament.

It got us one guard down. That was a tough situation to be in, such a dynamic team you’re playing that has such good guard play. I thought she was a really solid defender for us. It certainly impacted our team.

Q. The question isn’t whether you’re going to be in the NCAA tournament, but you’re on the line about whether you can host at home or not. Do you think you have done enough to earn one of the top four spots where get to you play at home?
MATTHEW MITCHELL: Unlike a lot of coaches, I don’t really study it real closely. We just try to stay focused on our team. I wish I had a better answer for you. I would really have to take a look at it.

No matter what seed we are, I think we can be a very dangerous team. I’ve said that all along during the season. Provided we get the right matchup, I think we can go deep in the tournament.

We got to get back to Lexington, get our feet underneath us, get some rest, bounce back. I thought you saw last night a really good performance from us. I was so proud that the team came over and played hard in this tournament. It’s a tough, tough tournament to compete in. Tougher tournament to win.

When you make it to Saturday and you’re one of the last four teams standing in the conference tournament, you know you’ve got a good basketball team. I’ve always felt like this tournament with the back-to-back games is in many ways harder than the NCAA tournament where you at least get a day of rest in between.

I’ll be excited to see where we go. I just leave that up to everybody else. I don’t try to lobby for anything. Smarter people than me who are making those decisions. We’re just going to try to coach our team, get in the tournament.

Real proud of our team for all they accomplished this SEC season. It was a tough, tough year. We overcame a lot of adversity throughout it. I hate we came up short today, but really proud of our team.

Q. I know the first matchup you and Mississippi State kept it very even on the glass. How much did being out-rebounded factor in, wearing you guys out inside?
MATTHEW MITCHELL: I think that was tough. I thought we got some good plays around the basket, got some misses, then failed to block out there really close in on the basket. Those are tough box outs when they are missing shots, you’re trying to turn, find the ball, they tip it back in. A few of those were tough, tough breaks for us.

I thought, again, our players really competed hard today, played hard, bounced back with a tough effort. Just didn’t shoot the ball well enough today. I thought that deflated us some there in the fourth quarter. It’s just hard to keep getting stops when you can’t get the ball in the basket.

We were able to create some open shots and just couldn’t get them to go today. But tough, tough day, tough opponent, hard game. We just didn’t quite get it done.

Q. Obviously Jackson had 19 in the second half. Last night when you run into a player of her caliber, what is the plan coming in? Do you hope and pray she gets off it?
MATTHEW MITCHELL: Well, we didn’t handle one of their actions very well. You saw her keep coming in there, if you’re facing the basket, that left elbow, she wore us out from about 12, 13 feet really getting deep. It was just guard-to-guard switch. We were trying to accomplish that there. They do a great job of executing that action.

I thought she just got too deep with uncontested shots. She’s a phenomenal midrange shooter. We just didn’t get that done today. We needed to play much tougher defense.

It’s hard action to guard without a lot of reps. We guarded it pretty good in Lexington and were ready to go. Just couldn’t quite accomplish it today. But she’s a heck of a shooter there from the midrange. Really did a good job.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports