Kentucky fans put the L's down Saturday. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Kenny Brooks has his own Fab Five.
Kentucky outlast Louisville 71-61 in overtime in a sold out Memorial Coliseum Saturday night to snap a seven-game losing streak against the Cardinals in Brooks’ debut in the Battle of the Bluegrass.
The Cats made seven of 13 shots in overtime and outscored Louisville 13-3 after they had missed a chance to win in regulation when point guard Georgia Amoore had her 3-point shot blocked.
Brooks played eight players but three of them combined for only 12 minutes — and did not score — while every starter played at least 38 minutes and four played 43 or more minutes. Louisville’s bench outscored UK’s bench 25-0 but in the end, it didn’t matter.
— Amoore played all 45 minutes and scored 19 points on 7-for-17 shooting (3-for-9 from 3) from the field and also had nine assists and two steals. She did make eight turnovers but she also drew six fouls.
— Wing Amelia Hassett played 43:18 and had nine points, 13 rebounds and one assist. She was 5-for-6 at the foul line.
— Center Clara Strack finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots in 43:38.
— Forward Teonni Key had 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting, nine rebounds and five blocked shots to offset seven turnovers in 38 minutes.
— Guard Dazia Lawerence played 42:42 and went 6-for-11 from the field and finished with 14 points, three rebounds and three assists.
Kentucky did not shoot a free throw the first half and was only 4-for-8 at the line going to overtime where the Cats made nine of 10 charity shots. Key, Strack and Amoore all hit two free throws in overtime while Hassett made three of four.
“I think it was really good for our team tonight to play a quality opponent. It’s an instate rival, but I think that games like this early in the season can really teach us a lot but also show what we’re capable of,” Amoore said. I think overtime in a tough situation like that, we really locked in and got good plays, some good offensive rebounds.”
Amoore was especially impressed with Hassett, a junior college transfer.
“Amelia, to me, proved something that she hadn’t proved in the earlier games,” Amoore said. “She had a bit of grit to her tonight, and that’s infectious. Now, we know what to build off of.
“ It’s always a great win when you beat Louisville. Super proud of the girls tonight. A lot to build off of for sure, but I’m glad we played a quality opponent this early.”
One significant problem was turnovers. Kentucky had 24 that led to 28 Louisville points.
“You know, it’s not always great when your point guard has eight turnovers,” Amoore said about her missus. “Team-wise, I think probably just a bit of panic. And we’ve talked this week about being aware.
“I think we knew that they were going to come at us, but we didn’t really know how hard they were going to, and I think a couple of them were, you know, travels, or just being sped up by their intensity and defense, which is something we can easily control. So that’s something that we’ll definitely get used to.”
Brooks knew fatigue might have factored into the turnovers.
“This young lady right here (Georgia Amoore), she works as hard as anyone. She’s conditioned, she’s going to get help, we’re going to have to play some other players, but I’ve seen her do it. She is able to execute through the fatigue,” Brooks said.
“You can look at her numbers right now and they don’t do her justice. A few of the turnovers were mine, maybe fatigue but to play 45 minutes in this type of game with this intensity where they are going to pick you up full court all the time. Probably the biggest nightmare she probably had was (Louisville’s) Kalyn Williams is probably the best defender in the ACC, when she was at Miami, she picked her up full court all the time. Then you put her with this team who does it all the time, it was probably a nightmare for her, but she handled it extremely well.
“She had a couple of big shots for us, we had a couple of mishaps in the game where we weren’t on the same page, the whole group. But playing 45 minutes with this intensity, this type of game, it’s remarkable.”
Brooks also said it was only his team’s fourth game and said five turnovers were on him.
“I called a play which I knew they were going to do certain things but when you can win while you learn, that’s a really good thing,” the Kentucky coach said.
Kentucky-Louisville WBB
Photos by Vicky Graff
