Kansas State isn’t Sure on how to Stop Georgia Amoore

UK Athletics Photo

Kansas State gets its chance to try and stop Kentucky and All-American point guard Georgia Amoore in Sunday’s NCAA Tournament second round game in Memorial Coliseum.

Amoore had 34 points in Kentucky’s win over Liberty Friday and had a 43-point game at Oklahoma earlier this season. However, Kansas State had to face superstar Caitlin Clark of Iowa last year, one of the best women’s players ever.

Kansas State guard Zyana Walker noted that Clark and Amoore are “different” players.

“Caitlin is a little bigger. Amoore is a little smaller, faster. I’m excited to be able to match up with her,” Walker said Saturday. “Great player. Going to be in the WNBA. So I’m just taking it as a great opportunity for me to be able to see where I match up with that.

“Just know that you’re not going to be able to completely shut them down. Great players like that, you just got to try to contain them. That’s just my mindset. I want to control what kind of shots I want them to be able to take. I’m going to do my best to get them where I want them to be, make them a little uncomfortable. That’s all you can do, and just hope that the ball doesn’t go in the basket for them.”

Kansas State coach Jeff Mittie isn’t sure what the answer is on how to contain Amoore, who leads UK in scoring and assists. She had 23 points in the first half Friday.

“Her usage rate in the pick and roll game is as high as anybody we’ve seen in the country. Probably her and (Haley) Van Lith in terms of the usage rate. It’s over 40 percent,” Mittie said. “So when you analytically look at how many pick and rolls you’re going to have to defend, that’s just her, you know? They run it for others as well. Their back court is really, really talented.

“You’re certainly not going to stop her. I think you’ve got to find your places to pick to contain her. You’ve got to within your defensive system, play to your strength as best as you can. You’ve got to maybe give her different looks. I think it is kind of an end game thing, too, to see what kind of looks maybe is best for you.

“She’s a very talented player. It starts with her. She sets the table for a lot of them. But she’s very good. So I don’t have all those answers, but I will say that certainly we know that the pick and roll game for them is very, very good. They’ve got all the pieces to run it really well, and (UK coach) Kenny (Brooks does a good job with it. I wish Kenny was coming off a pick and roll instead of Amoore.”

Mittie also knows Kentucky is as big as any team K-State has played this season.

“You’re not going to have many wide-open shots. That’s one of the things that we try to do at our end. We don’t want to give wide-open shots. We want to keep our length in front as best we can and force those contested jumpers,” he said. “So I expect this game will be a lot of contested shots. I expect this game will be who can make the most contested shots. Certainly Kentucky will be a challenge at their end, and we hope that we’re a challenge at our end.”

Kansas State got a lot of length back Friday when For  center Ayoka Lee returned from an injury and had a double-double of 17 points and 10 rebounds in just 15 minutes

“With Lee back in, that’s a difference for us defensively. (Friday’s) game really had the size difference of the two teams. There’s not really a whole lot you can take from our game (Friday) to what’s going to be (today’s) game,” Mittie said.

Kansas State point guard Serena Sundell had a team-high 18 points to go with nine assists in Friday’s win.

Kentucky guard Dazia Lawrence says there are a lot of similarities with both team’s guards.

“They can shoot the 3 really well, and they have a couple of guards that can attack the basket, which a lot of guards in the SEC do. I feel like it’s going to be a pretty great matchup for guard play (today),” Lawerence said.

Amoore knows the Kansas State guards want to create scoring opportunities for Lee whenever they can.

“It’s not like we can just focus on Lee or Sundell, if she’s creating. We have to be so focused on every single matchup. I don’t think there is a weak leak out there on the court when they play,” Amoore said.

The Kentucky star said stats indicate that she is “one and the same assist-wise” as Sundell.

“But I think it’s impressive how she’s able to lob to her bigs. The depth that they have inside, it enables a lot of opportunities for her to put that pass perfectly in a scenario where their bigs have to do nothing but pretty much catch, turn around, and shoot. So she’s really good at that,” Amoore said.