‘She really carried us.’ Teonni Key’s career night not enough to save ‘step-slow’ UK.
Any time the Kentucky Wildcats appeared to be taking control of the game during their 61-55 loss at Texas A&M on Thursday night, junior forward Teonni Key was somewhere in the action, making a difference.
Whether it was playing a clean third quarter after she’d already been called for a pair of fouls in the second, delivering five points to help push the team’s lead to double digits after halftime or making the UK’s sole 3-pointer of the night early in the fourth period, Key played with hustle and purpose for 36 minutes.
That’s why, when Kenny Brooks spoke to his team after the game, he celebrated Key, who contributed a career-high 20 points, plus nine rebounds and one steal in the contest.
“After the game was over with, I talked to the whole team,” Brooks said. “And I praised Teonni because she had the energy. I think we went up 10 at one point in the third quarter, and it was pretty much her. And ... no one really followed suit. So I was very pleased with her performance. She played really hard and she really carried us during stretches. But, you know, we can’t just rely on one person. And we didn’t have the others following suit like we needed.”
Key — who reset her career high in scoring for the third time this season — looked like a completely different version of herself from the one who struggled to stand out in Kentucky’s first loss of the season, a frustrating 72-53 defeat at North Carolina on Dec. 5. Though the result was ultimately the same, this time eroding a perfect Southeastern Conference record, Key emerged as the player Brooks has described her as since the offseason, and nearly carried the Wildcats to victory on the road.
“We had our chances,” Brooks said. “We just didn’t capitalize on them. But you know, there’s no rest for the weary, you have to put out and you have to work.”
What went wrong for Kentucky at Texas A&M?
In Kentucky’s first conference loss, the Wildcats (16-2, 5-1 SEC) failed to harness consistent offensive momentum, allowing the Aggies — who have a penchant for second-half bursts — to hang around during a night plagued by uncharacteristically poor 3-point shooting, all-too-familiar foul trouble for their frontcourt and a dominant night from Texas A&M leading scorer Aicha Coulibaly.
The Wildcats, who entered Thursday’s game ranked second in the SEC in made 3-pointers per game (8.9), shot a meager 12.5% (1-of-18) from beyond the arc, and gave up four deadly A&M 3-pointers on 50% shooting. The Aggies (10-8, 3-3) average 3.9 per game.
“We had some good looks early that I thought we didn’t capitalize on,” Brooks said. “And I think it really changed our attitude. ... You give them credit, they did contest some of our shots, but we had some that could have fallen. And that’s a big part of our offense, is to step up and knock down those shots. And we didn’t.”
Nothing was falling for UK, even for its long-range leaders, Dazia Lawrence and Amelia Hassett. Lawrence finished with eight points, and missed her only 3-point attempt despite averaging 2.5 makes on 5.6 attempts per game. In the Wildcats’ Sunday game against Georgia, she scored no points.
Hassett recorded five rebounds, but did not score for the first time all season, and only attempted two 3-point shots. Through UK’s first 17 games, she nearly averaged a double-double at 11.1 points and 9.4 rebounds.
When asked how he could involve the two more in the offense, Brooks said, “Sometimes it’s not my job to get them involved.”
“It’s their job,” the UK coach said. “It’s not like we’re going to be setting, running plays for anybody. And where they get their opportunities is they present themselves, they make themselves available.
“And, the last couple games, I thought Dazia was OK against Georgia, she didn’t force anything, but we did try to get her going early, and she was just a step behind and didn’t get to her spot and what she needed to do. And then Amelia, Amelia is going to have to be better than what she was tonight. I just thought she was very tentative, but we really need it to happen organically, because, they’re just not the kind of kids who can go get their own opportunities.”
Lawrence finished with three personal fouls, while Hassett joined Key and sophomore center Clara Strack in committing four apiece.
“You’re gonna have to win ugly,” Brooks said. “And this game was ugly, it really was. It was ugly. They make it ugly. And we did not allow ourselves to play our game. We kind of resorted to playing their game, and we’ve got to be better than that. And so, we’ll get back at it and we’ll work hard. And, you know, you learn from opportunities like this.”
Strack added six points, five rebounds and one assist. All-America point guard Georgia Amoore contributed 15 points, three rebounds, five assists and one steal. The Wildcats shot 31.3% (20-of-64) from the field and did not make a field goal in the final 4:44 of the game, leaving the door open for a Texas A&M surge to secure its second comeback victory against a ranked opponent this month; the Aggies outscored then-No. 25 Ole Miss 20-6 in the fourth quarter to defeat the Rebels on Jan. 5.
Missed shots ‘demoralizing’ for Kentucky in College Station
Against the Wildcats, Coulibaly finished with a game-high 21 points, in addition to seven rebounds, three assists and one block. She was joined in double figures by Lauren Ware, who added 10 points, three rebounds and four blocks. The Wildcats, who previously led the nation at 7.4 blocks per game, did not record a single block in the loss.
“I don’t think that we really imposed our will and what we wanted to play,” Brooks said. “And give them credit, but I just don’t think we were ... we were a step slow, pretty much the whole night in every category. And so we have to get back, we have to get better. And we understand that, but I think a lot of it, I really think our attitude just really was based off of some shots going in, and they were demoralizing because some of them were in and out. And I felt like we really hung our heads when we didn’t make those shots.”
Following Kentucky’s loss at Reed Arena, only two SEC teams remained undefeated in league play; No. 2 South Carolina (18-1, 6-0) was to host No. 5 LSU (20-0, 5-0) on Friday.
The Wildcats will look to bounce back Sunday against Arkansas (8-12, 1-4), the first matchup of a two-game home stand. Seven of Kentucky’s final nine regular-season opponents — No. 19 Alabama, No. 15 Oklahoma, Ole Miss, No. 7 Texas, No. 5 LSU, No. 17 Tennessee and No. 2 South Carolina — received Associated Press Top 25 votes this week.
“This league is just very good,” Brooks said. “And you’re gonna have challenges each and every night, and they’re presented to you in different ways. And so you have to come out and you have to be ready to play. And we understand that, we know that. That’s why I was disappointed that we just didn’t really have the energy that we needed tonight.”
Next game
Arkansas at No. 11 Kentucky
When: Noon Sunday
TV: SEC Network
Radio: WLAP-AM 630
Records: Kentucky 16-2 (5-1 SEC), Arkansas 8-13 (1-5)
Series: Kentucky leads 27-16
Last meeting: Arkansas won 88-61 on Jan. 25, 2024, at Fayetteville, Arkansas
