Kentucky Women’s Basketball Postgame Quotes
Kentucky 85, South Florida 63 – FINAL
UVI Sports & Fitness Center – St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
Thursday, November 22, 2018
Kentucky Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening statement …
“It was a big win. The team really was focused and came out and just kept their poise. It was a really tough first quarter. We took a lot of hits in that quarter, but battled and kept our poise, we didn’t get down. I told the team at halftime I was so proud of how they came out and presented themselves today just from a hustle standpoint and the eye test. The stats got behind, so we don’t really know the stats, but I told them in the back, I don’t have to see a stat sheet, I know what it looks like and we really out-hustled South Florida today and it was a credit to our team.”
On Taylor (Murray) having a big game …
“Just did a great job and in that second quarter it was 26-8, it was a huge effort form the bench, and Taylor, we got some foul trouble, but Taylor was outstanding today with her pace and her attack. She’s playing really good basketball right now, and she is doing it on both ends. She’s disrupting on defense, she’s moving the ball great and pushing the ball, so really pleased and really proud.”
On the bench rallying when starters were in foul trouble …
It was great, Amanda (Paschal) played the way she needed to play, Ogechi (Anyagaligbo) played the way she needed to… the only choice Ogechi has is to be the toughest and most dedicated to hustle and make all those little plays that don’t show up in the stat sheet, she did that today. She’s still trying to round into form, not playing for two years, bouncing back from a knee injury. The thing about her is she showed today what she has to do. She made the 12-foot open jumper, she kept so many balls alive today, she was tough on the board. The bench came off and did what they needed to do, and like we’ve said, we’re not going to show up and blow peoples doors off because we have individual superstars, but there can be power in the team and that’s what we’re going to try to keep riding with. The second quarter was huge for our bench, they should gain a lot of confidence from that.”
On how they answered USF, punch-for-punch …
“First five minutes of the third quarter they came out and cut it to 12, and then we got it to the media timeout by winning that five-minute portion. We try to break the games up by those five-minute segments, and we won it by one. We were up by 16 at halftime, then we were up by 17, so it was only one measly little point, but it was observing that first run and turning around and doing something positive. So, just so pleased with the team today.”
On UCLA tomorrow …
“This is something – South Florida who is ranked in the top 20, and your reward for that is to be play UCLA tomorrow. So that’ll be a tough game, but just love where our team is right now, we wanted to come down here and improve and get better. The team really worked hard in limited time, they made some mental adjustments and played with some focus today. We’ll enjoy it for a little while and get ready to saddle up and see if we can get another one tomorrow.”
