Georgia Amoore (Vicky Graff Photo)
Georgia Amoore scored 29 points and handed out seven assists, but it wasn’t enough for 12th-ranked Kentucky as it lost to No. 10 Oklahoma 69-65 on Friday in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament in Greenville, S.C.
Kentucky got 43 points from Amoore and scored 95 points at Oklahoma in a double-digit win in early February before the Sooners started a win streak that has now reached nine straight.
Kentucky had 20 turnovers and was only 4-for-23 from 3-point range. Amoore, who also had five rebounds, was only 10 of 27 from the field and 3-for-8 from 3.
Clara Strack had 12 points and a career-high 16 rebounds along with two steals but she was 5-for-14 from the field as UK was 27 of 71 overall. Dazia Lawerence had 12 points but was 5-for-14 shooting including 1-for-8 from 3.
Kentucky had a 10-point lead early in the second half after an Amoore 3 but could not hold off the Sooners even though UK won the rebounding battle 49-43 and after getting badly out rebounded in the earlier win over Oklahoma.
Oklahoma was only 22 of 72 from the field but went 6-for-27 from 3 and 19-for-20 at the foul line in the physical game.
“We just have to hit shots. Plain and simple,” Amoore, who did not have a turnover, said. “I think we had open looks. Hit them. There were even some possessions where we caught the
ball, looked like it surprised us, and we hesitated. So that’s on us.”
Here are some of the comments Brooks made after the game:
Q. Earlier at South Carolina this week you said the team was feeling a bit beat up. Do you feel like that played a factor tonight?
KENNY BROOKS: “No. I think everybody is tired, beat up at this point in the year. It’s just a mindset that you have to get through it. Just ’cause we got some bumps and bruises doesn’t mean that Oklahoma doesn’t have bumps and bruises or anybody else who is playing at this point, at this time of the year.”
Q. Obviously you haven’t watched the film yet, but what lessons can you take from this to roll into preparation for the NCAA tournament?
KENNY BROOKS: “I mean, it’s not like we got upset, we lost to a bad team. Oklahoma has won nine in a row, ranked 10th in the country. They’re a championship culture. They won two Big 12 championships in a row pretty much with that core of kids. They know how to win basketball games.
“We have to finish. We have to finish basketball games. I thought we had a good stretch. I know somebody’s going to talk about fatigue, but with three minutes to go in the game, we’re down by one and we have a double timeout. We did that intentionally so we could get some rest. When you get into those opportunities, you have to take advantage of them.
“There’s some plays we’ll look at down the stretch that we didn’t make, and they made. That was a big part of the game.”
Q. Clara, she didn’t have her best offensive game. But has been awesome all season for you. From your perspective, two years ago when she arrived, what kind of transformation have you seen? Are we even scratching the surface yet with her?
KENNY BROOKS: “No. I’ll correct you right there. I thought she played well offensively. She got
double-teamed quite a bit, a very aggressive double-team. When you’re being doubled and the person that’s doubling you, your teammates have to dive and put themselves in position to be available. We didn’t do that several times.But she played hard. She played hard. She endured a lot of physicality throughout the whole basketball game. She kept her composure. She stayed in the present. She battled as she’s done all year long.
“Just a progression. We had a feeling she could be this good. She just didn’t get an opportunity last year because she had to play behind an All-American who never got in foul trouble. We had to find a way to get her on the court. Everything we’re seeing we’re not surprised, we’re extremely excited about what she’s going to be able to do in the future.”
Q. The physicality of the game, can you talk about the inside play?
KENNY BROOKS: “I could talk about it, but I’m sure I’ll get fined so I guess I won’t talk about it. Congratulations. I can’t wait to see the energy tomorrow when they play against South Carolina. It’s going to be fun.”
Q. There were 20 turnovers and it felt uncharacteristic of the team. Could you break down if that was more of a mental lapse or…
KENNY BROOKS: “I know. Obviously in a game like this, Oklahoma, they’re going to be aggressive on the defensive end. They’re going to shoot gaps, gamble a lot. If you look at it, probably 10 or 11 of our turnovers were by our post players. Some of those are the tie-ups. They weren’t turnovers that really hurt us. You want to give yourself a chance to shoot the basketball every time you get it. They weren’t live-ball turnovers. They didn’t hurt us that bad. Our post players getting double-teamed, we’re not getting opportunities.”
Kentucky-Oklahoma WBB
Photos by Vicky Graff
