UK ATHLETICS COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC RELATIONS
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
KENTUCKY VS. NO. 1 SOUTH CAROLINA
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2022
MEMORIAL COLISEUM – LEXINGTON, KY.
Kentucky Head Coach Kyra Elzy
On what Rhyne Howard did differently in the fourth quarter to keep the game close…
“I thought she started playing downhill. Rhyne was aggressive off the dribble, she made her mind up that she was going to finish at the rim. She made some big buckets down the stretch. I thought she played great off the ball screen, which had been good to us all night. I thought when we made the run, we got into our press, forced them to play fast, turn them over, got a couple of steals to get back into it late.”
On how the team played off Rhyne Howard tonight…
“At times, I thought we did a lot better. I thought when they kept her on one side of the ball screen, they were hard hedging. We kick back to our posts a couple of times. Dre’una (Edwards) made some plays, Olivia Owens made some plays, and that’s what we need. We have to take advantage of how they are guarding Rhyne and we’ve worked on it the last couple of days and will continue to do so.”
On Howard’s injury…
“She got hurt in this game, in particular, but as you saw, she battled through it, so we were glad to have her on the floor. She’ll see our trainer and let’s hope for all good things.”
On how Robyn Benton played in her first game back…
“Well, she makes us different. She’s an athletic guard, one that can score, she didn’t do that tonight, but what she can do on the defensive end – she can pick the ball up in transition, she can play in the passing lane, she has a great knack for the ball. And it gives us another perimeter sub, which allows us to rest on people, which that’s why we could extend our press, when you have a rotation of people.”
On containing South Carolina’s interior play…
“We talked about it at halftime, I had to burn a timeout early. Our first shot defense was pretty good majority of the game, it was when we were giving up the second and third shots, and then they were scoring in the paint, and that’s what they do well. In the second quarter, we held them to 10 points, but we started to box out a little more, and we just talked about we’re not going out jump them, they have more athleticism, but we have to find a body, do it by committee and everybody do their job and try to get a box out. I thought we adjusted for the most part.”
On why she thought it took being down 18 points to make a run…
“I thought we let our offense affect our defense. When we weren’t scoring, we gave them some easy scoring opportunities. But there’s something about when we see that ball go through the net, it gave us some energy, but then I thought we turned our defense up. When we had to have possessions, I thought we turned our defense up, and that’s what we have to do more consistently across the board.”
On what she told the team to start finding open shots…
“Well, we need a ball movement. Ball movement, player movement. We went to our ball screens early because that’s a place that we thought we could attack off of, but then we weren’t taking it side to side. So, when we start moving the ball side to side, shifting it, then we started getting open looks.”
UK Student-Athletes
#10, Rhyne Howard, Senior, Guard
On first game with full team back …
“It was better to have all nine players back. We get more subs going and we could be fresher. It was great just to have everybody back and just to be whole again. Just so we can uplift everybody be back to one whole team again. They know if nobody’s out, then nobody’s having to share playing time. We can start having some more fun with everybody being back.”
On how her teammates helped her being doubled team …
“I feel like my team did a really good job on making themselves available for me. If I don’t have a look, then they know that I’m going to be able to get it to them where they cut where they’re open. I’m good at going to find them when they are there, so they did a great job on moving around.”
On problems working off ball screens …
“We know that was a weakness of theirs, guarding ball shooters, so we just want to exploit a bit more and get some easier looks around the rim. We were getting the looks outside, but we just weren’t able to hit. So, while using the screens we were able to create some looks inside and cut the lead.”
South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley
On how Rhyne was able to frustrate the Gamecocks …
“It’s who we had in the game. They aren’t who I would consider some of our better defenders. And Rhyne (Howard) senses that. She saw openings. Time and time again, we went under screens, she shot the ball behind the screen. If you want to play at this level, you have to pay attention to the details. Especially with a player like Rhyne (Howard), who got her team back to within seven, and made it a game. I mean, I tried to keep our reserves in as long as possible, to see if they can make a push, because, you know, any experience is good experience, but not at the expense of costing us a game.”
On rebounding better …
“Yeah, I mean, that’s, that’s par for the course for us. This is what we do. I mean, we missed a lot of shots, but we give ourselves a really good chance of getting an offensive rebound. And we did that today. Obviously, if we placed Aliyah and Victoria a little bit more, we probably would’ve gotten a couple more rebounds. But we felt like we built the lead to where we could give them some rest and give some other people some opportunity to play in an SEC road game.”
On interior play offensively and defensively …
“Yeah, we’ve got Aliyah Boston, we’ve got Victoria Saxton, who by far is an incredible player. I think sometimes she gets overshadowed a lot, but if you’re a basketball enthusiast, she makes things happen. She makes big plays. She doesn’t make very many mistakes. She rebounds the basketball. And she does it without complaint. So she, to me, is a star with what we do in our program. We talk daily about what are we going to do without V (Victoria Saxton) next year? So I’m hoping she comes back. If the WNBA doesn’t scoop her up.”
