NASHVILLE, Tenn. — In its Southeastern Conference Tournament opener against LSU, Kentucky won playing a style it would rather avoid.

In a 69-56 semifinal win over Vanderbilt, Matthew Mitchell had no intention of allowing his team to play anything other than the fast-paced, high pressure basketball UK Hoops fans have grown to love. “We just had a lot more intensity coming out,” said senior forward Victoria Dunlap, who finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds. “Coach got us excited in the locker room. (He) told us that it was about us today, giving our best effort. We had to know as a team we had to go out there with a Kentucky mindset of playing hard, up-tempo defense. We got it done.”Mitchell simply wanted to get back to playing Kentucky basketball.”I just wanted them to understand that they’re part of something real special right now that’s happening at Kentucky,” Mitchell said. “The way we could go out there and show everybody how much we appreciate that is to play Kentucky basketball with a lot of passion, a lot of enthusiasm and I thought that they came out of the gates like that.”Mitchell’s team heard him loud and clear.The Wildcats absolutely blitzed the Commodores and the first-half numbers tell the story: 22 straight points after falling behind 2-0; 16 first-half turnovers forced; 14 points off turnovers; 20 percent Vanderbilt shooting. It all translated to a 33-11 halftime lead.UK carried that performance forward into the second half, eventually creating a 49-22 second-half lead. Vanderbilt rallied to make the game interesting down the stretch, but the lead that had been built on Kentucky’s brand of basketball was too much to overcome.Making the finals of the SEC Tournament for the second straight season is an accomplishment, but a matchup Sunday at 5:30 p.m. ET with regular-season champion Tennessee will determine whether the Wildcats reach their ultimate goal of this road trip to Nashville, Tenn. UK nearly pulled off an upset of Tennessee in last year’s SEC Tournament championship.”We came down here with the goal of winning this tournament,” Mitchell said. “You know, as a coach, I figured that if we could get to Sunday, I figured we’d see Tennessee, and that’s what’s happened.”As always, beating the Volunteers is the tallest order the SEC has to offer.”The matchup tomorrow, we have a very, very tough opponent that we had a tremendousgame with in Lexington,” Mitchell said. “They are a very talented team. They are a team that poses you a lot of challenges.”As unique as the challenges that Tennessee presents may be, Mitchell knows the only way to face them is by playing the style his team knows so well. Unlike the previous matchup in Lexington where the build-up was immense, the short turnaround may favor the Cats in that they can focus solely on what they do best.”You focus in on your fundamentals, what your principles are,” Mitchell said. “It’s going to be a very, very simple game plan tomorrow. I tell our players all the time, ‘Don’t confuse simple with easy, because it will not be easy tomorrow.’ “Mitchell won’t spend an inordinate amount of time preparing an intricate game plan. His team is going to try to play just the same way it did Saturday against Vanderbilt.”We will have to work extremely hard to try to pressure Tennessee and try to make them uncomfortable in their offense,” Mitchell said.Working in their favor is the confidence the Wildcats built playing Tennessee more competitively than any other team in the SEC has managed when the Vols survived 73-67 in Memorial Coliseum. In that game, Kentucky forced 24 Tennessee turnovers with its signature pressure defense.To pull off the win this time, Mitchell sees one area his team will need to hone in on.”The big, big key is working hard to compete on the boards,” said Mitchell, whose team got pounded on the glass 45-23 in the first meeting. “We need to really bow up tomorrow and win the battle of the boards.”To do that, UK will need the kind of effort Brittany Henderson delivered against Vanderbilt with a career-high 18 rebounds. Against a bigger, taller Vanderbilt team, Henderson helped the Cats hold their own.”I just knew that early in the game, there were a lot of tough plays,” Mitchell said. “I felt like there was a lot of contact on rebounds early in the game, and she was coming out of there with them. That made me excited because that is where she needs to be.”If Henderson can replicate that physicality and the Wildcats can sustain the commitment to defensive pressure they have demonstrated all season, UK could deliver a historic win on Sunday.”We have to rely on our defensive fundamentals, what we worked so hard for to get to this point, turn it loose, give it everything we have tomorrow and see if we can be the champions of this great, great tournament that I love so much,” Mitchell said.Mathies questionable for championship: With 11:55 remaining in the second half, sophomore point guard A’dia Mathies came out of the game. Due to an ailing back and a big Kentucky lead, she went to the end of the Kentucky bench and did not return to the game. Against Arkansas, Mathies took a charge and sustained a bruise on the small of her back. Mitchell said she aggravated the injury on another drawn charge against Vanderbilt. Mathies will be checked out and monitored but Mitchell anticipates she will play Sunday.”We don’t know anything that would prevent her from playing tomorrow, but we’ll justhave to see,” Mitchell said. “We’re trying to be as cautious as possible with her health obviously, but it’s a contusion. That’s all we know right now. She’s going to go for an X-ray to make sure that there’s nothing structurally wrong there.”