Cats bumped heads early with coach Kyra Elzy but when it counted they won for her

Rhyne Howard and Dre Edwards celebrated after UK won its first SEC Tournament championship since 1982. (Victoria Graff Photo)

After Dre Edwards hit the game-winning shot to beat No. 1 South Carolina Sunday and give Kentucky its first Southeastern Conference Tournament title since 1982, Edwards had a long hug with UK All-American Rhyne Howard.

What did they say to each other?

“We looked at each other and we both said, ‘I love you, man.’ Rhyne kept saying thank you, and I said, ‘Man, this one was for you. I had to get you one before you left, man, I had to.'” said Edwards, the game’s leading scorer.

Howard has been an All-American and Southeastern Conference Player of the Year. She likely will be the No. 1 or No. 2 pick in the WNBA draft. She is the second all-time leading scorer — male or female — at UK. But she had never won an SEC championship or SEC tourney title until Sunday.

Coach Kyra Elzy tried to tell Howard not to put so much pressure on herself to carry the team when the season started.

“I just had to realize I can’t control what was happening. There was nothing that could be done on my end, so I just had to settle in and confide in my teammates and have fun with them and just go all out for them,” Howard said after UK’s 10th straight win.

Kentucky, though, was not having a lot of fun a month ago before it regrouped and ripped off 10 straight wins, the kind of play expected from a team that started the season in the top 20.

Howard was brutally honest about what was wrong.

“We started having fun. That’s pretty much it. When things were getting tough, we weren’t having fun. Basically, we acted like we didn’t want to be there, and that’s how it looked, and that’s how it appeared to our fans,” Howard said.

“After we stopped — we had a team meeting, we were like, ‘All right, y’all, this is dead, we cannot end like this, especially with it being a lot of us being seniors and just meaning a lot to ourselves and to Kentucky.’ We knew we had to get it together and tough it out.”

Edwards also admitted there were trouble spots earlier in the season. She was suspended twice by Elzy.

“We had bumped heads a little bit (with Elzy), we had some up-and-downs for sure. Stay poised, do what I gotta do, and my team held it down and they were fighting all the way. So I knew when I got back, I had to fight, too, and that’s what we all did and that’s what we did and we got W,” Edwards said.

“We all bumped heads. I bumped heads a little bit too,” Howard said. “But at the end of the, she (Elzy) had our backs more than anyone else, so we knew we had to step up for her and for ourselves.”