UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
KENTUCKY VS. TEXAS A&M
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 2022
MEMORIAL COLISEUM – LEXINGTON, KY.
Kentucky Head Coach Kyra Elzy
On the offense changing from the first quarter…
“In the first quarter I thought we pushed in transition, I thought we attacked early, got some layups. I thought we played well out of the ball screen offensively, which we had worked on. In the second and third quarter I thought we were a little stagnant. We took quick shots and or we didn’t have ball movement or player movement. Which resulted into six points and nine points.”
On Jada Walker’s return …
“We held her out for precautionary reasons. Our trainer will continue to check her status.”
On where Kentucky WBB goes from here…
“Where do you go from here? We go back to work. There’s nothing else you can do. We watch the film as a staff, we evaluate ourselves, the players evaluate themselves. We pick things up and get better where we went wrong today, defensively and offensively.”
On Rhyne Howard handling double teams …
“In overtime, she did get the ball, they trapped her. That’s where we’ll help them be better. As far as we should have flashed to the ball, whichever man she doubled off of, we have to flash to the ball. We have to make people pay for how they are guarding Rhyne, which we didn’t take care of today.”
On the team’s execution…
“I thought we had a chance. We didn’t get a stop at the end of regulation which was tough. I thought down the stretch we just didn’t move the ball enough to score. Our timing and spacing was off.”
On the final play in regulation…
“We were going to get the ball and go to a high ball screen which had been good to us all day long. We scored out of it all day. They ended up trapping like I said, so that’s just where we have to be better offensively. So, when they bring the trap, we have to make them pay. That means someone is not being guarded if they are double teaming Rhyne. There were five seconds left on the clock, though she would have to get it out pretty quick. But you can still make people pay, five seconds is an eternity. So, once you make the pass, we need to attack out of it.”
On how much can Elzy change to make the other teams pay …
“That’s why you go back to your offensive execution. Sometimes it’s not just about the play, it’s about making a read. You can’t draw every little thing up because you don’t know what the defense is going to do. Putting our players in better position in practice, that they’re going against different defenses, which we do, and it helps them feel more comfortable when they do different things. These are the reads that we need to be able to make.”
Kentucky Players
#10 Rhyne Howard, Sr., G
On what changed with the UK offense after the first quarter …
“I feel like we left defense affect our offense. We were giving up easy points on the other end and when we weren’t scoring, yeah, we were too stagnant.”
On the last possession of regulation …
“Go score. Just set a ball screen and make the right read.”
On handling Texas A&M’s double teams and if anything was different in overtime …
“They didn’t do anything different from regulation. I would just say we took some quick shots before I had a chance to get my hands on the ball.”
#44 Dre’una Edwards, Sr., F
On staying aggressive …
“I think, at times, we’ve just got to be more aggressive. We had a good game plan. Sometimes, we didn’t follow it. So, we’ve just got to lock in and stay focused at times.”
On if she is feeling comfortable on the court …
“I feel good, definitely finding my rhythm again.”
Texas A&M Head Coach Gary Blair
Opening statement …
“First, there is nothing like coming to Lexington. This is one of my favorite cities and we are always treated great. I have told you before, I don’t know what order, but it is horse racing, bourbon, or basketball in this state and good football now as well. But this state is special, I have come in and it is probably my last time here, but I have enjoyed every bit of it.”
On the composure of the team through the end of regulation and overtime…
“This is like after your kids have screwed up at home, and you have got to give some tough love and some discipline. That is what we had to do. We had to get in. They only scored six points in the second quarter even though we only scored five. It allowed us to get back in the game. But discipline, tough love has to work sometimes. Win or lose, you got to love after loss, before loss and everything. Kyra is doing an excellent job with her team, and I have got a great coaching staff that is doing a great job with our team.”
On guarding Rhyne Howard…
“If she would have been on the men’s team in the men’s world, she would have been one and out. We spent a lot of energy trying to deny back to her and we do not usually do that. That is the respect that we had. But eventually, she was wearing (Kayla) Wells out and wearing Sahara (Jones) out and finally little (Qadashah) Hoppie had to come in and give us some energy there.”
On the success of their 3-point shooting…
“It is called ‘find the hot hand’ and we found Destiny (Pitts) two times in a row. I was begging and pleading to run the next play to her. Somehow, I do not have a transistor radio in my earphones like football coaches do. I was trying to get her that big nine, the big nine can really deflate another team and raise you so much. Like (Rhyne) Howard has probably done before or (Emma King) coming off the bench.”
Texas A&M Players
#3 Destiny Pitts, Gr., Guard
On their overall success during the game…
“Personally, I really liked our composure and execution, especially when I went up to I think 36 seconds, when we got to 36 seconds, when we got the basket and then we got the stop defensively. I knew from then if it went to overtime that we were going to win the game because we were not allowing Rhyne to take the shot.”
On this being Coach Blair’s last season…
“All year he has been saying that it is not about him, and it is about our team and this year’s team. He is going to put his best foot forward. Even with him going on his last year and how we have been doing we want to turn that around because we have never lost this much in our life.”
#11 Kayla Wells, Jr, Guard
On the effectiveness of the double teams on Rhyne…
“She is a really skilled scorer, and she has a lot of height. It is really hard to guard, especially coming off screens and all the screens they give her. We just wanted to slow her down. We wanted anybody else but her to beat us. I think we really did a good job, especially in overtime, of getting the ball out of her hands and keeping it out of her hands.”
On the competitiveness after the game with Rhyne…
“I think we are competitive people, we are going to compete, and it does not matter. If Rhyne scores, next time we are going to come down and try to get a stop. I do not think there is anything else to it, just competitive.”
