Cats Hope Learned Lessons Carry Over to Sunday
In Friday’s NCAA Tournament first-round win over Liberty, the Kentucky women’s basketball team established a lead early, and carried a double-digit advantage into the fourth quarter. UK led 67-50 with 9:36 remaining in the game. However, Liberty mounted a run, chipping away at the UK lead. An 11-0 stretch got the Flames within four with 2:26 to play. Liberty would eventually cut the deficit to just one, but the Cats were able to hold Liberty at bay, winning 79-78.
The Cats know that they can’t let that happen again.
“I think that it was interesting, yesterday’s game, because we applied pressure first half, and second half we definitely took it off,” said UK All-American guard Georgia Amoore. “I’m not quite sure why because SEC season we didn’t do that. I’m not sure if it’s because we thought we had a lead and once we got that lead that it was OK to take a step back. Which it’s March, so it’s not.”
According to Amoore, beginning with Sunday’s second-round game against Kansas State, there can be no such letup if UK wants to keep its season alive.
“I think that, going into tomorrow’s game, hopefully we’ve been woken up,” Amoore said. “Hopefully a lesson has been learned. But we have to do nothing but just revert to what we’ve been doing for the past three, four months. Going into K-State, we know that every single quarter, every single run, it’s so important for us to keep applying that pressure on offense and defense.”
Amoore’s backcourt running mate, guard Dazia Lawrence, agrees with her point guard.
“I think we learned a lot just from the second half of that game yesterday and just seeing that — just knowing that we can’t let it get that close again because next time it may not turn out the way that we want it to,” Lawrence said.
Kentucky will take those learned lessons into Sunday’s matchup against a Kansas State team that torched Fairfield on Friday. UK head coach Kenny Brooks knows that K-State, with center Ayoka Lee and guard Serena Sundell, is a formidable opponent.
“Their team is so much more than Lee or Sundell,” Brooks said. “They’re good. And they were a top 10 team legitimately for most of the year. They’re a legitimate top 10. They really are. Their record is not indicative of who they could be. And obviously when you take out Ayoka Lee, even though the rest of the players are phenomenal, but she makes them that much more special.”
The Cats are hoping that the lessons learned late in Friday’s opening-round win can carry over into Sunday’s contest against Kansas State.
