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After Kentucky outlasted then-No. 5 Oklahoma 63-57 Sunday in Memorial Coliseum, point guard Tonie Morgan joined the UK Radio Network postgame show with Darren Headrick.
He asked Morgan how she felt after playing all but 15 seconds of the game and finishing with 22 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals, and one blocked shot on Oklahoma All-American center Reagan Beers late in the game.
She told him she felt “great” before adding, “I don’t know that my body would agree with that, though.”
That’s because she took a beating and just kept coming back for more. Once she lay on the court crying, and several other times she limped after taking big hits. Each time, she assured Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks she could keep going — and she did.
“(Morgan is) obviously really, really good,” Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk said. “She’s fast. She can find things in transition. She can work off of a ball screen as good as anybody, and find people. And especially when she’s surrounded by shooters, that’s hard coverage. Especially when you have a five-player (Clara Strack) that picks and pops, too, that can provide some extra challenge.”
However, Morgan has emerged as the clear leader of Brooks’ second UK team, just like point guard Georgia Amoore was last season.
“I thought, especially in the first half, I thought she just ate our lunch, and I thought we did better in the second. But nonetheless, she really just makes them go,” the Oklahoma coach said.
Brooks understood the beating Morgan took not only on offense but as the main defender on Oklahoma freshman sensation Aaliyah Chavez. She had 18 points but was only 7-for-23 from the field in large part because of Morgan’s defensive harassment.
“She’s gonna get a couple of days off. She won’t practice,” Brooks said Sunday after the win. “We’ll work on some stuff. We’ll make sure she’s sharp and get her some rest (before Thursday night’s game with visiting Florida). But this was a heck of a performance for her.”
The Cats, who dropped from sixth to seventh in the AP rankings this week, were coming off a disappointing loss at Alabama and, for the second straight game, were without Teonni Key, one of the team’s best defenders and rebounders.
“The message was it’s going to take all of us. It’s going to be a dogfight for 40 minutes,” Morgan said. “I think once we started executing and started chipping the(Oklahoma early 13-point) lead down point by point. But they are a great team.
“We definitely had to dig our heels in for this one. This team scores a lot of points, and we knew that. We had to defend, or it was going to be a long night. But we came out in the second half like, ‘We got this.’ We knew what they were going to go and we knew how to execute. We did a much better job this game of getting over screens and not getting hit.”
Morgan was disappointed she had five turnovers but thrilled UK had a win over a top-five team for the second time this season (UK won at LSU to start SEC play).
“That builds confidence,” the Georgia Tech transfer said. “We know we can do it. We definitely can compete in this league at a high level. We just have to keep executing even when Teonni’s out, and then when we get her back, just keep it rolling.”
One Response
Never count Tonie Morgan out. As impressive as her offensive game was, the late shot she blocked on Beers was as impressive as anything she did in the game.
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