Kentucky Women’s Basketball
Postgame Quotes
No. 18 Kentucky 69, Washington State 67
Memorial Coliseum – Lexington, Kentucky
Kentucky Head Coach, Matthew Mitchell
Opening statement …
“Well, I was really proud of the team to be able to finish down the stretch and earn a really tough victory. I was very concerned coming into the game about us handling their pressure. We did it well at times – and at times, we didn’t. It was a really up-and-down day for us, but in the end, we won by one more point than necessary, so I am thrilled that we won and it was a great effort for the team and a great result for the team today. It’s easy to see we have a ton (of things to) get better, but to win these two games without Taylor (Murray) is a real testament to our togetherness and our team coming together and everybody just finding a way and chipping in to find a way to win it. So, really, really happy for the team and really proud of this group. We had a 3.517 team GPA for the fall semester and that shows that they are serious students and they are just a great team to coach. Really enjoy being their coach. I’m proud of them and glad they’re going into Christmas break with a win.”
On the late timeout after the free throw …
“Yeah, we were going to advance the ball in case. If she made it, we were going to call the timeout. On the miss, at that point in time we probably could have dribbled it out and gotten down the floor and still got the same result, but we were able to advance it and get it to Maci (Morris). Maci had dislocated her finger right there at the end of the game and probably should have run that play for (Makayla) Epps or someone else. Evelyn (Akhator) was really hot from the free throw line, but it all worked out in the end.”
On what worked so well in the first quarter …
“We were able to get into our four-out set that we had rehearsed this morning and we haven’t had a lot of reps. I feel like we probably felt like we could relax a bit and we probably didn’t have to move as much and then I thought our offense – which is a bad trait that this team must work on – is when we make shots, we get much more energetic and play tougher on the defensive end. And then when we aren’t making shots, we tend to kind of withdraw from the fight on the defensive end. In the first half, we were able to move the ball, we were patient, didn’t dribble too much, and just got some beautiful looks. I was very surprised at how well that looked. And then, in the second quarter we looked a lot more like I thought we were going to look like. So, I was grateful for that first quarter. It was a good quarter for us.”
On Maci Morris’ pinky injury …
“Dislocated. So they just popped it right back in. She just walked over and right back into the game.”
On if the injury is as severe as Taylor Murray’s …
“We don’t know. We don’t think so.”
On where this team is relative to his preseason expectations …
“Coming into the season, I was just trying to find a way to figure out what our best would be. I didn’t know. We had some good pieces, but I just didn’t know we would come together. So, for where we are right now – I’m really proud with the results. We need to get so much better at so many things. Not having Taylor Murray is pretty glaring and so what a great job that everybody did to just kind of fill in and beat a team that is much better than their record (Washington State). That’s a really tough team right there and they’re missing two of their best players, so they’re a really quality team and Taylor could have helped us today. I’m proud of our fight. We’ve lost some close games to some really good opponents. I don’t know exactly what all that means, but I do think a third of the way through that when we hustle, and we don’t turn the ball over and we talk a little bit on defense we have a chance to be in games and play well. I don’t know how good we will eventually be, but I know we need to get better from this point, but I’m really proud of them to this point.”
UK Student-Athletes
#25 Makayla Epps, Sr., G
On what changed in the game…
“We were just all talking about it. We feel like Washington State had 11 turnovers in the first quarter, so it was a very awkward quarter for them. We came out swinging. I told them at halftime that the energy dropped and the hustle dropped and some of the effort dropped. It’s hard. We are human. We are kids. It was a real gutty performance. We had to gut it out. Without Taylor (Murray), we had to step up big. We won the game by two points, so a win is a win.”
On the reliance on Taylor Murray…
“Yeah, that is definitely the mentality. When we found out she wasn’t playing, we were like, ‘Oh.’ Taylor just adds a whole different excitement to our style of playing. She gets in there and gets steals and shoots out like a rocket. She goes for about 15 points a game, so it is just a different dynamic. I had to move to mainly the point guard again, and playing off the ball. Everybody had to step up big for Taylor.”
On if she knew Washington State had the lead…
“Yeah, they had a big three. Really close team. They have a lot of international kids, which you don’t really see a lot. They are known for shooting 3s and hitting 3s. It was a dog fight until the end. We knew we would have to gut it out and make a couple more plays, get another basket, get another stop and that is what it came down to.”
#13 Evelyn Akhator, Sr., F
On making her two free throws…
“Oh, we needed that. We have really been working on that.”
#4 Maci Morris, G
On if going into the break with a win helps the mentality of the team…
“Definitely. We were talking about how we had to get this win. We want to go into our break happy. We don’t want to be drained of energy and moping around. I’m glad we got the win, and we just have to come back and do what we do.”
On running out of gas after Washington State had a one-point lead…
“Honestly, I didn’t even see the score.”
On how her finger is doing…
“It’s good. I think I just dislocated it, but we don’t know yet. I think it’s ok.”
On getting free throws and knowing she had to get that stop…
“I was really upset with myself because I don’t miss free throws like that. That is one thing I know I will make is a free throw. I was really disappointed in myself for that. I knew I needed that stop because I did not want them to score the winning points on me.”
Washington State Head Coach June Daugherty
Opening Statement…
“What a game. We got punched in the mouth early in that first quarter and we really showed that resiliency, really stepping up and getting it down to a couple points at halftime. Seesawed back and forth, went down 10 late and again the confidence and the heart to come back was outstanding. We out-rebounded them, we out-shot them, came out short there at the end with them being able to score and us running out of time there.”
On Kentucky getting off to a big lead early in the game…
“Honestly, I thought that we were a little nervous coming out and it’s not unexpected right now. We’re going through a little bit of a transition with both of our leading scorers being out and both of our leading rebounders being out. Our two most experienced players are out, so we’re asking a lot of our freshmen and our freshmen class and players that usually don’t play a lot of minutes. We’re adjusting to that, and once they settled down I think they understood that they could get the stops that we needed and kind of get into a little bit of a running game, get something easy, which gave our offense some confidence. I thought that it was more on us than what they were doing to be honest with you.”
On her technical foul…
“If I comment they will take some money out of my pocket and it’s the holidays so I would rather keep it.”
On what was going well during the comeback…
“Our kids got confident. They started believing in each other. I thought we started moving the basketball better. I thought our matchup zone gave them all types of trouble. One of the things that is great about it is that when you have athletic kids, like Chanelle, who can disguise it and make it look like man-to-man for a few passes and boom. It’s kind of really a matchup and that is kind of what we used late in that stretch. We had six or seven straight stops, and that got us into our running game. I thought that was really big for us. The other thing is that we had the confidence. They’re young or inexperienced to play a lot of players and right now we have to play a lot of players and I felt like our bench really stepped up for us tonight, especially on the defensive end and rebounding wise.”
Washington State Student-Athletes
#11 Chanelle Molina, Fr., G
On getting that lead in the third quarter…
“We had a lot of confidence. When we started getting stops in the second quarter and we started building that lead, that is when we started having that confidence. We had the confidence all along, we just had to find it and that came with defense. Our defensive stops, rebounding, those little things that produced on the offensive side.”
On playing against Makayla Epps…
“She is a good player. She is a senior, so she is very experienced. It’s kind of nice knowing that I can play with her and keep up with her. It’s really fun. As a point guard I have to stay composed, so I have to learn how to have fun and not take everything so serious. That will just mess up my game. It’s really fun.”
