I wasn’t at Tuesday night’s thriller at Cameron Indoor Stadium, but I did want to say a few things after watching the UK women’s basketball team fall in a heartbreaker to No. 3 Duke on Tuesday, the recap of which you read here:The reaction from Big Blue Nation following the game seemed to be that Kentucky was done in by a couple of non-calls late in the contest with the game on the line.While there were some eyebrow-raising whistles and non-calls, the fact of the matter is Duke came up with the big plays down the stretch and UK didn’t. The Cats led 48-46 with 2:42 remaining but were unable to score a point the rest of the game.Duke went on a 6-0 run to end the game, ending Kentucky’s bid at a monumental signature win.After the game, Mitchell pointed to UK’s first-half performance as the reason for the defeat. The Cats trailed by nine at halftime and came all the back to make it a game. In the end, though, Kentucky just ran out of gas.”We just can’t come in to a quality team’s gym, as talented and as tough as Duke is, and play one half,” Mitchell said. “That’s just so disappointing. From a coaching standpoint we tried to get prepared for the game and we clearly weren’t in the first half.  Some were but our entire success depends on everybody doing their part, and we just didn’t get that for a complete 40 minutes. So I’m still convinced that we have the opportunity to be a very good team, but you’re not going to beat Duke playing one half of basketball.”What put the Cats in a first-half hole was simply rebounding. Duke outrebounded UK 31-10 in the first half.”The rebounding stats were just embarrassing at halftime,” Mitchell said. “I’ve never been a part of a game like that. I’ve never seen that kind of rebounding margin ever at halftime against a team that’s supposed to be top 10 in the country.”As disappointing as the final result was for Kentucky, the coaches, players and fans can take comfort in the fact that UK more than proved it belonged among the nation’s elite.The Cats gave everything the undefeated Blue Devils could handle. Playing against a team that had beaten the likes of No. 7 Texas A&M and No. 4 Xavier, UK had stymied Duke for much of the game.Kentucky held a veteran Duke team to an abysmal 26.5 percent from the floor and forced 17 turnovers. With the exception of the end of each half, Duke senior Jasmine Thomas was held in check.If there was any doubt about last year’s run or notion that it was a fluke, Tuesday night’s near-victory – along with the early season victory over No. 12 Notre Dame – should have silenced those thoughts. Kentucky, now at 11-2 on the season, is very much here to stay among the nation’s best and should be a contender come March.

“Hopefully we can see that even against a team that’s much bigger and has a lot more size and is very, very physical and very well-coached, that we can, if we put our minds to it, we can play with them,” Mitchell said.