Kentucky-Furman Women's Basketball Postgame Quotes
KENTUCKY WOMEN’S BASKETBALL POSTGAME QUOTES
KENTUCKY VS. FURMAN
RUPP ARENA – LEXINGTON, KY.
DECEMBER 17, 2023
Head Coach Kyra Elzy
On starting Cassidy Rowe and bringing Saniya Tyler off the bench …
“Well, we’ve rotated are starting line up pretty much every game but I thought Cassidy has been solid in practice and what I was looking for. Her ability to shoot the ball, she was making hustle plays, taking charges and so I rewarded her from her practices. I thought she stepped up, was solid today seven points five rebounds, which that’s huge, two-to-one on assist to turnover ratio. So, did her job which is what I expect from her. ST (Tyler) came off the bench today had a solid day I think that took some pressure off of her let her. Just come in and play basketball and she did a great job today.”
On the team recording 20 assists …
“Well, we’re starting to understand the offense a little more and what we’re looking for who’s hot, who’s scoring at that time. But just the offense movement taking a side to side has really helped us and its gives us rhythm shots which we can shoot. And I am just so happy – it was just so nice to see the 3 ball go in at Rupp Arena today, 41% so that’s always a happy day for the Wildcats.”
On how the team responded after the timeout in the second quarter …
“We were just talking about before the game aggressive turnovers versus careless turnovers and I thought those were careless turnovers. Either we weren’t in the right spot or we were pre-determining the pass that we want to make. We threw a lot of passes out of bounds. I don’t know what we were looking at over there but that’s also learning to play with each other. Some of them we were back cutting, we were throwing the ball to the outside so just learning to play with each other but you know we have to learn from that we had to many turnovers today.”
On any updates on Amiya Jenkins and Zennia Thomas …
“Amiya, she’ still day-to-day so we look forward to getting her back soon and Z it still stands– suspended indefinitely.
On if Brooklynn Miles will be asked to score more or primarily facilitate …
“Part of how I see her role – I’m still challenging her. I gave her a shoutout on the radio. I thought what Brooklynn Miles brought today defensively was just contagious. What she does doesn’t show up in the stat sheet. She doesn’t get to come to the press conference, it’s not a headline but let me tell you, she knows how to wear that basketball out for 94 feet, which is hard to do. It also allows us to get our defense set and our transition defense set. So, so proud of her and just a contagious energy and then when she got tired I thought Saniah stepped up on the basketball and I told her, it’s always a victory, maybe it doesn’t show up on the stat sheet, but if a coach has to call a timeout out or they can’t get in their offense or they pass the ball ahead and let somebody else run it, that is a victory. That’s how you know you’re doing a good job. But we still need her to be an offensive threat so getting into her scoring range, pushing in transition– she likes the comfort of facilitating and we’re going to push her out of ger comfort zone she has to be able to score the ball and she can.”
UK Student-Athletes
#2, Saniah Tyler, Guard
On what they learned from playing Louisville and if those lessons appeared today …
“I’ll say the same thing. Just kind of have to go back to work after the Louisville game. I feel like we are in a good spot, like, at the end of the game we weren’t down because we knew we could keep up with a good team like that. So, like I said, we just have to go back to work.”
On today’s defensive gameplan and adjustments …
“We went in, like, one-on-one defense. We have to be sharp on one-on-one defense and then we have to know where shooters are. So, we have to stay on the lane line, and not let them get any shots. They had hit a few threes, so we had to kind of adjust and know where they were and fly out to them, so they did something other than shoot.”
#22, Maddie Scherr, Guard
On what the team learned from playing Louisville …
“I would say in the Louisville game, there was a third quarter run that they had and we just couldn’t recover from and it just kind of shows you to make it over that hump. You’ve got to execute down the stretch. And I think in this game, it definitely carried over, we executed really well, shot the ball really well, forced them into a lot of turnovers. You know, after the first quarter, we were up by one but then we came out in the second and really, you know, changed our mindset and we’re going to win this one. We won that quarter 21 to eight, which is good. So, I think we really just learned you can’t let up. There’s there’s no letting up in those four quarters.”
On Saniah Tyler’s performance …
“How about her picking the ball up all night long. I mean that I was going to say that with our defense that that just gets everything going when they’re picking the ball up on the court like that, it is a hard job. That’s definitely something that I feel like in my old age I can’t do anymore, but she’s been great. Obviously, shot the ball great tonight and that you know what I love about Saniya, she’s going to keep shooting it and I tell her all the time, please keep shooting that ball because you can shoot. I think this one is more of a mental game you know, but when you get out of that, it shows she can play.”
On Emma King’s performance …
“Yeah, she was great tonight. It’s funny because she’s a guard but she plays hard down there in the post when we need her to and she steps up. I saw that bruise on her eye and she’s just like, ‘it’s all right’. But that just speaks to who Emma King is as a person. She’s such a hard worker. She knows this program in and out and she gives us that gives us that extra oomph that we need to get over a hump like that. That’s the little things that sometimes don’t always show on the stat sheet, but she’s just overall a great teammate somebody that you want to have on your team.”
