Dazia Lawrence had 15 points in her final game at Kentucky Sunday. (Tonia Witt/RiseUp Sports)
Kansas State coach Jeff Mittie knew his team was fortunate to escape with an 80-79 overtime victory over Kentucky after UK missed four shots in the final 20 seconds that could have won the game.
“I think everybody just witnessed one of the great games in the tournament right now,” Mittie said after Sunday’s game at Memorial Coliseum. “That was — it’s hard to even go over all the big shots both teams made. You go the last 10 minutes of the game, and there were just huge shots by both teams and different players.
“Really proud of our group to be down five and to need to really dig deep defensively and make plays but also very little margin for error at the other end. We just tried to get them to focus on three stops at the other end and good possessions at the offensive end. Proud of our group for doing that.
“Just a lot of really, really big plays in this game. We’re glad to come out on the right side. It obviously could have gone either way, but these games are like that, especially when you have two really good basketball teams.”
Here are some other insights the Kansas State coach shared after the win that put his team into the Sweet Sixteen and ended UK’s first season under coach Kenny Brooks with a 25-8 mark.
Q. Coach, on Friday you said you didn’t have the answer to stopping Georgia Amoore. How do you feel your defense did tonight (Amoore had 18 points but was 7-for-23 from the field), and do you think they found the answer to that?
JEFF MITTIE: “A player like her, it’s tough. It’s tough. She does so much for her team. I thought we did a good job, though. I thought they stuck to the game plan, even when Georgia was able to do some things that I didn’t like. She’s such a good player. She gets that huge 3 behind the ball screen.
“You’re not going to — if you find some success, you’re fortunate, but I’m proud of our group. I’m proud of Zy Walker for taking on the task because one of the things that having a Zy Walker does, it allows Serena (Sundell) to not have that defensive stress. It allows Jae (Glenn) to not have that defensive stress. And Zy loves it. Zy loves it. Zy loves the challenge, and she didn’t have the only. We switched some things.
“I thought our defense was pretty solid on her all night. We just wanted to keep her in front. I don’t remember too many times that she got to the rim, but she’s a heck of a player, and she’ll have a heck of a pro career because she just makes everybody around her better.”
Q. Obviously it was a great game. What are your takeaways of, first of all, Kentucky, and then Kenny Brooks’ first season at Kentucky?
JEFF MITTIE:” I’ll tell you what, Lexington should be really excited about their team and their coach. Kenny is a great guy. Excellent coach. They’ve got a really, really bright future. There’s a good atmosphere in here today, and I would expect that atmosphere to get better and better.
“They’ve got a really, really quality team and a team that competes really well, but that doesn’t surprise me. I’ve watched Kenny’s teams over the years. So just a quality team, and he’ll keep putting together quality teams out there.”
Q. I just wanted to ask you about the last 20 seconds. Kentucky got a couple of offensive rebounds and got a few chances. I just wanted to ask you about it and kind of run through your take on the last 20 seconds.
JEFF MITTIE: “I didn’t enjoy it until the very end (laughter), until that buzzer went off. Look, a lot of bodies flying, right? They don’t have any timeouts left to hit the reset button. A lot of bodies.
“It’s hard for me. I had a little bit of an angle on the last one (by Amoore). I felt like it was short. I wonder if it wasn’t wishful thinking at the time. Just a great effort and obviously a lot of joy when that horn went off because, you’re right, Kentucky got the extra chances there, and they just couldn’t convert. It happens like that sometimes.
“We’ve been there, and their kids were scrapping as hard as they could scrap, and sometimes it just doesn’t fall.”
