Senior Blair Green gets a congratulatory hug late in UK's win over Missouri Sunday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kentucky had lost two straight games and seven of its last eight games before easily beating Missouri 77-54 Sunday in Memorial Coliseum.
Coach Kyra Elzy’s team had lost 74-71 at Missouri Dec. 29 and one big boost for UK was the play of senior forward Blair Green. She went 6-for-12 from the field and had 14 points, five rebounds and one assist in a team-high 37 minutes.
It was Green’s eighth double-figure scoring game this season but her first one since Jan. 1 and Kentucky had lost five of six games since then. Her five rebounds were also her most since getting seven at Minnesota on Dec. 7.
Elzy said she had been encouraging Green to stay in the flow of the offense.
“This is where you’ve got to stay mentally tough. I thought she had some great shots. I want to say welcome back to Blair Green. It was so good to see the ball go in the basket. She has been working so hard, so it was good to see the ball go in,” Elzy said.
Green said “energy” was the key word for Kentucky (10-11, 2-7 SEC).
“When our team plays with energy and fights and we’re cheering on each other and just having fun with it, that’s when we play our best basketball, and I think that’s what we did,” Green said.
“I think the last couple weeks really just haven’t gone as planned and leading up to this game we really just had to look ourselves in the mirror and just like, have some tough talks – have some heart-to-hearts and figure out who we are, and who we are individually and what we can bring to this team.
“That loss at Mizzou that really hurt us because we knew we could be that team. We were up on them in the first half and we kind of let it go so our biggest thing is no let-ups. No let-ups at all. I thought we really did that and really showed that we weren’t backing down so we really wanted to get them back.”
Kentucky’s reward now is playing at No. 1 South Carolina on Thursday. The Gamecocks beat UK 95-66 in Lexington Jan. 12.
“I think our biggest thing right now is we can’t rewrite the past – like we can’t rewrite those last games. How are we going to be remembered for these last, like, we only get nine more games,” Green said.
“That’s all we get guaranteed until then, we start tournament play. And it’s just how you play from there, but how are we going to rewrite our story — how are we going to be remembered. Not everyone remembers the beginning of the season, but how are they going to remember us in the end? So that’s kind of our biggest thing right now.”
UK-MIZ
Vicky Graff Photos
