Vicky Graff Photo
Kentucky’s SEC Tournament run ended Friday night when it fell behind early against Tennessee and despite a valiant rally in the second half still lost 80-71 to end the season 12-19.
Here is what seniors Blair Green and Robin Benton said in the media room after the loss:
Q. Blair, you’re from Kentucky. Talk about what this opportunity has meant for you?
BLAIR GREEN: Honestly, it’s amazing. It’s the time that I’ll cherish all my life, just looking back at all the amazing memories that I have got to make with my teammates and my coaches and the love they poured into me and making me a better person today and being prepared for whatever I have next in the next chapter.
Probably some of the best memories I’ll ever have in my life and the sisterhood I have created over this time, but it’s challenged me and brought out the best in me and made me tough and resilient for the future.
Q. More of a statement, but you guys, every single game have come out and competed, from jump ball to the buzzer. No matter if you were down 20 or up 20, and just the resiliency of this team and y’all’s play. Your fierce competitive spirit, and I want to say thank you for giving us the opportunity to cover you guys.
Q. Robyn, from a transfer’s perspective, can you discuss your few years here at Kentucky and what they meant to you?
ROBYN BENTON: It meant everything to me. We won this last year so I feel like I made the right decision to come to Kentucky. Big Blue Nation, they embraced me and loved me when I was looking for a home out of the portal.
Q. I know this has been a tough season mentally. How does it feel to end on this note? I know obviously a loss, but a run in this tournament.
BLAIR GREEN: I’m proud of my team coming in here. We could have just died down and been the 14th seed and laid it down and just had like what everyone expected. We kind of made history with being the 14th seed that won the first two games, so I am proud of that and I’m proud of going out with what I knew we could do.
I wish it would have been earlier and we could have made that statement a long time ago, but we went out fighting and that’s all you can ask for.
Q. Blair and Robyn, you guys were two of the five returners this season. What do you think was different about this team this year and what was enjoyable about this squad?
ROBYN BENTON: You know, it was ten new people, so I got an opportunity to know ten new faces. We bonded. We laughed. We cried. I gotta give it to them. Like Blair said, we could have laid it down but they stuck with it.
Q. I was hoping you could talk about the fourth quarter. Almost coming back, what was going through your head? What were you feeling at that moment?
BLAIR GREEN: I think at that moment, I mean, we cut it down to a pretty close game. That could have been the last quarter we ever played in our life, so just laying it all out and just knowing that we gave it our all and poured it all.
The outcome is what it is, but as long as we laid it all out there, that’s all we can do.
ROBYN BENTON: We came really close, and in my mind, I’m pretty sure everybody else’s mind, we were thinking win. We weren’t thinking, let’s hang on, we were thinking, let’s win this game.
