‘We were just always a step behind.’ No. 15 Kentucky survives Purdue Fort Wayne.
Kentucky’s 79-67 comeback victory over Purdue Fort Wayne on Monday night opened with the Mastodons scoring on a play that head coach Maria Marchesano took from Kenny Brooks. The play, which Brooks said he immediately recognized as his, gave the visiting team a lead it would not lose until late in the third quarter.
“Ah, yeah, it makes you mad,” the Kentucky women’s basketball coach said, smiling. “It makes you mad, but you know what? What is it? ‘Imitation is the biggest form of flattery?’ Or whatever the saying is. If you want to continue the run, Louisville ran a play, they called it ‘Hokie,’ and it was our play that we ran last year. So, I guess we have some pretty good stuff.
“Maria, she told me, I saw it. She told me that. And it is flattering, but we’ve got to be much better. We saw it, I saw it developing, it looked very familiar. But she does a really good job with that group. They execute, and I think I’ve coached against her once, when she was at Mount St. Mary’s. And she’s a really good coach, and her teams are very, very well-coached. Their whole staff did a good job. ... They were calling out our stuff, and you could tell they were very well-prepared.”
Monday night’s win in Memorial Coliseum was a reminder of the difficulties that come with a thin roster just a couple of days after an emotional matchup. The Wildcats, snapped their seven-game losing streak to archrival Louisville in a back-and-forth overtime win on Saturday night. Against the Cardinals, Kentucky’s starting five of Georgia Amoore, Dazia Lawrence, Amelia Hassett, Teonni Key and Clara Strack played the majority of the minutes, and alone were responsible for all of the team’s points.
Against the Mastodons, the Wildcats again leaned heavily on the iron five, while also putting junior guard Cassidy Rowe on the floor for 29 minutes.
“I don’t want to disrespect Purdue Fort Wayne because they played a heck of a game,” Brooks said. “And they played hard, and they pushed up to our limit. But I could see it in our kids. They were tired. They were fatigued. I knew that going in. If you’d have told me that we were going to win this game by 12 before the game, I would have taken it in a heartbeat rather than go through what I had to go through. Now I have to go, and I don’t even drink bourbon, I might have to try to — I’m in Kentucky, right? No, I won’t. But we knew it was gonna be tough, but this is an opportunity.”
Brooks said Monday’s game against the Mastodons was the final contest scheduled after difficulties finding a sufficient number of opponents to play during the nonconference slate.
“As soon as I signed it,” Brooks said, “I knew it was gonna be a problem. But we gotta look at this opportunity; if you’re gonna play in the NCAA Tournament, this is the format. You play on Saturday, then you’ve got a day in between and you play again the next day. We’re going down to Nashville in a week or so, and we’re gonna play two games in a row, back-to-back. So you’re gonna need these opportunities to prepare yourself. Not only physically, but mentally, so I’m glad we played the game. Look forward to cheering for (Purdue Fort Wayne), hopefully they’ll be able to make an NCAA Tournament. I don’t want to play them, but I hope they make the NCAA Tournament.”
Brooks, who brought both Amoore and Rowe to the postgame media availability, said he leaned on the two point guards, and that they were “the only energy that I really felt like I got from the group.”
“I thought both of them did a really good job,” Brooks said. “You know, just looking at them in timeouts, I could feel the energy coming from their expressions. And they both played well. Georgia did a really good job handling the pressure, scoring big baskets when we needed to, her defense was really good. Cassidy came up with some really big plays for us on both ends, helped to kind of smooth the offense out a little bit so Georgia didn’t have to do too much. But we have to be better.”
UK, which moved from No. 20 to No. 15 in the Associated Press rankings earlier Monday did not take their first lead of the game until 1:45 remained in the third quarter. Though four Wildcats finished in double-figure scoring, a standout offensive performance from the veteran Amoore — who contributed eight points in the third period after making just one basket in the first half — led Kentucky (5-0) to extend its undefeated record.
“Playing passive in the first half, I was giving up a lot of opportunities,” Amoore said. “I wasn’t aggressive toward the basket, or with my shots at all. I think I was giving up a lot of passes, and it just got to the point where I was like, ‘I need to switch on and be way more aggressive.’ ... I need to take my shot first.”
Amoore finished with 23 points on 7-of-18 shooting, including 4-of-9 from beyond the arc, and added four rebounds, seven assists and one block. She turned the ball over twice, a vast improvement following her eight turnovers against Louisville.
“It’s always a work in progress when you’re in your fifth game with a new basketball team,” Brooks said. “But very fortunate to get a win tonight.”
Lawrence, who was perfect from the field in the first quarter for the second time this season, finished with 21 points, including five 3-pointers, and one steal. Strack added 14 points, nine rebounds, four assists, three blocks and one steal. Key scored 12 points, grabbed 10 rebounds for her second double-double of the year and contributed two assists and five blocks.
The Wildcats also struggled with foul trouble; Hassett, Key, Strack and Rowe committed four fouls apiece. Amoore said she didn’t think Kentucky capitalized on and adjusted to the way the game was called.
“I don’t think we were embracing the physicality at all tonight,” Amoore said. “And I think if we had’ve, that’s four, six, eight extra points that we could’ve stolen.
“Defensively, they’re gonna call some stuff, and we have to adjust, but I don’t think we adjusted as much. And we were always behind, we were always very reactive in their sets. And we were going through that in shootaround and walk through, and they have options. They’re a smart team. They’ve played together, they have read-and-reacts, and we were just always a step behind. So we tried to make up by blocking, and obviously fouls and reaching, so going into the next game, it’s just being proactive and aware. We touched on being aware for the whole week, and we’re still yet to be aware.”
Brooks said, despite the physically and emotionally challenging 48 hours, he’s pleased with his team’s grit to come out the other side of the two-game stand “unscathed.” However, Brooks still reminds himself that his team is tired, and that the ability to bounce back from adversity and move forward, both stronger and with great energy, is going to take time.
“It has to happen organically,” Brooks said. “You can talk about it, but you can’t do an exercise to make them better at it. You can’t have a kumbaya meeting to make them really good at it; it just has to happen. Georgia is a natural leader, she’s going to have to lead a little bit stronger. Cassidy understands what’s right and wrong, she’s going to have to use her voice. Dazia Law has played a lot of basketball games, and she does it, just doesn’t do it as consistently. And then we have our triplets, what we call them, Amelia, Clara (Strack) and Teonni. They have to be synchronized and talk more. They’re gaining experience, and with that experience, they need to be a little bit more outside of themselves, they can’t be reserved. They have to be able to go out there and play with that emotion, that energy.”
Next game
No. 15 Kentucky vs. Arizona State
What: Music City Classic
When: 4:30 p.m. EST on Nov. 26 at Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Tennessee
TV: BALLERtv
Radio: WLAP-AM 630
Records: Kentucky 5-0, Arizona State 3-2
Series: Tied 1-1
Last meeting: Arizona State won 73-71 in Lexington on Dec. 11, 2016
