Kentucky is ‘really, really good’ But Oklahoma Was Better On Friday

Vicky Graff Photo

Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk and center Raegan Beers (20 points, 11 rebounds) after Oklahoma beat Kentucky 69-65 in the SEC Tournament Friday after losing to UK during the season.

Q. Last time you played this Kentucky team, you really struggled to stop specifically Georgia (Amoore who had 43 points earlier), the whole offense. What did you tell your team tonight? What did you know had to change?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Well, I tell you what, Kentucky is really, really good. They’re balanced. They can spread you out. When you have an elite forward like that, it’s really challenging. I don’t know how many times I was asked the question, How you going to stop her? Every time you can’t stop her. She does so many things.

I think what we had to do was make her work a little bit more. I do feel like us playing them once helps you to play ’em twice. That’s something that we’d never played her before, and she was really great.
What she does so well, she creates so much for them. Even though she’s such an efficient scorer, an elite scorer, she can create so much for other people, even when it doesn’t come out as an assist. Might be a hockey assist.

We had to do a better job of making her work. I thought we did a really nice job, especially compared to the last time, of not running around and trying to chase her. You still have to move, still have to work.

How about Skylar Vann, our freshman. I thought she did a phenomenal job. I feel like the rest of our team did a better job of staying disciplined and not over-helping. I thought we did a better job of position defense.

I haven’t watched the film. I’m sure I’ll find plenty of holes in it. She’s just good, really, really good.

Q. Kentucky has been known to be susceptible to teams that play physically. They’ve had depth issues. How much of your strategy was geared towards those areas, beating them up and tiring them out?

JENNIE BARANCZYK: Let’s not act like it wasn’t physical both ways. I think it was physical both ways. Their length, you can’t go over that in a hotel ballroom in a scout. You can’t go over that with scout teams. This league is physical.

It wasn’t our intent to come in and just be physical. In fact, I think we need to get more physical in a lot of the games, especially on the rebounding edge. They got the rebounding edge.

I feel like it was just an SEC game that was a physical game. The intent is just to do whatever you can to continue to get better. I feel like we were lucky to be able to make the run at the right time.
But they’re very good. They’re very good. This league is good.

Q. At the end of that third period, you were able to put Oklahoma over Kentucky. How were you able to carry that momentum into the final 10 minutes of the game?

RAEGAN BEERS: When we have a lot of energy on the bench like we did, coming out in that third quarter, going into the fourth, that energy from the bench onto the court just fuels us. It fuels every good team.

Today I feel like we played with intensity and we played with fun. When we play with that energy and we have fun as a team, it really pushes us over that hump which you saw in the third quarter leading into the fourth.

Q. Will you please talk about what it’s like to match up against Clara Strack?

RAEGAN BEERS: Man, she’s phenomenal. Obviously a great defender, long, lengthy, really hard, moves well. Has a beautiful shot on the outside. Great person to go up against.

I love going up against great players like that because it just makes me better. It was a great test for us today as a team. I feel like defensively we guarded her for the most part really well. Kind of digging in when we needed to. Our guards were kind of getting in there. If our post got too buried…

When we play team defense like that against good players like her and teams like Georgia, we come out on top, which we ended up doing today.

Q. On a lighter note, as you were leaving the court, I saw you talking with the pep band. They started in cheers of, Beers, Beers, Beers. Do you get that a lot?

RAEGAN BEERS: Yeah, obviously my last name is popular. Beers, Beers. The band started that chant here, a little bit back in Norman. They just love to chant that. It’s just fun having that energy. Obviously on the court when you’re with the team, you can have that energy within the team. But when your band and cheer and your fans bring that energy with you. Our fans were up cheering defense. I heard them. When you have that energy, that fuels you even more. So to have a band like that that’s willing to do all that, bring the energy with us, along with our team and fans, it’s a fun environment to play in.