Kentucky Women’s Basketball Postgame Quotes
Kentucky 75, UCLA 74 – FINAL (Overtime)
UVI Sports & Fitness Center – St. Thomas, Virgin Islands
Friday, November 23, 2018
Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening statement…
“We’re fired up that we won, really fired up. I thought we had such good poise in the first half, and then you have to credit UCLA in the third quarter. They just were on the ropes, they didn’t want to lose, it was going to be their third loss, two games in a row… we’ve been there in this tournament before. You’re just so desperate and you just don’t want to lose the first two games. So, I thought they were incredibly tough, and we’re just not very good versus switching defenses and pressure defenses. We’re standing too much. So, it was a difficult third quarter for us. But, just credit them. As many bad plays as we had, the fouling, the giving up the offensive glass, the boards, not boxing out on free throws. As many bad plays as we had, we had a million tough, tough plays. The two 3s by Jaida (Roper), incredible. Amanda (Paschal) got in and got fouled at a crucial time. Maci (Morris) shook off a really bad second half to get up and get some momentum in overtime. KeKe McKinney, unbelievable steal when we needed it badly, I mean that is why you do all the drills in practice. So it was a team effort, one-by-one and that’s all you’ve got to win by.”
On ability to drain huge shots…
“Huge shots. Just really, really proud, and hey, how about the last shot in regulation. Rhyne (Howard) was able to get that back in the goal, and just huge. So, shot-after-shot that we made was not a work of art today or a masterpiece by any means, but it’ll look really good on our record.”
On getting the win, but still having things to work on…
“This is a big, physical group from UCLA, and us missing Tatyana (Wyatt) – so proud of her trying to go today, she’s really in a lot of pain. Ogechi (Anyagaligbo) went as hard as she could in warmups, trying to go on a sprained ankle and could not go. Really proud of those two kids for trying, but we didnt have them and we had some combinations that quite frankly, we hadn’t worked a whole lot on, but gutted it out to find a way to win.”
On having to go with five guards at some points in the game…
“Well, it has the possibilities. We have to learn how to front physical post players. We got outworked a little bit, but it’s like I kept telling the coaches, there were a lot of bad plays we made, but it was by some folks who are very inexperienced with what they were trying to do. So, you’ve got to give them some grace on that. But man, to keep their composure, it looked like our goose was cooked, it just felt that way with about three minutes to go, but wow, boy we made some plays to get back in it.”
On Rhyne (Howard) stepping up at the line at the end of overtime…
“She missed the first one and she got hit real hard. She was in a lot of pain and I don’t know how she did it. She’s a real talented player and I’m proud of her. She’s got to go to work on her free throws, she’s got to become… she’s a good free-throw shooter, but she struggled some here, but made the one that counted, the one that put us over the top.”
On bumps and bruises…
“Rhyne (Howard) took a really hard hit there. I don’t know what her status is, she looked like she was still trying to recover form that, she got hit real hard. A lot of players have to gut it out and play a lot of minutes, so we will see. With this tournament, you don’t know what kind of game North Carolina is going to be involved in, you just have to find a way, whatever it is. We showed up today and found a way to win and that’s exactly what we need to do tomorrow.”
On playing North Carolina Saturday…
“Well, another big athletic team. Maybe a little bit more outside shooting capability. Um, from what little I watched live yesterday, I don’t know really anything about North Carolina, I haven’t looked at them yet, but watching them yesterday, I don’t know if they’re as relentless on the offensive glass. They’re big kids, Jannelle (Bailey) is as big and powerful as anybody in the country, so that’ll be a problem for us. But, we just have to figure it out. We’ll get a game plan together and just try to focus more on Kentucky and see what we can do.”
