Blair Green had a career-high 17 points in Wednesday's win over Marshall. (Vicky Graff Photo)
Junior Blair Green believes the extra work she has put in has increased her confidence level and it certainly showed against Marshall Wednesday night in Kentucky ‘s win.
“”The last game, I didn’t shoot very well, but it didn’t put my confidence down,” Green said. “I just knew I had to come back out and be more aggressive tonight.”
She was. She made eight of 13 shots and had a career-high 17 points along with two steals and one rebound.
“Blair was huge tonight. So happy for her,” coach Krya Elzy said. “Just to see her hard work pay off, but also, Blair has really bought into her role. A year ago, she was really set on how she was supposed to score. It was supposed to look a certain way.
“We really challenged her to let her know that she can score in a variety of ways and to not box herself in as you got to see. She ran in transition, she was so active defensively. Proud of her defense. She scored points off of her defense, she hit open shots, so it was a great night for Blair. We hope to see more of that.”
Kentucky All-American Rhyne Howard, who had 13 points, liked what Green was doing.
“I’m looking to give it to her every time because she has the hot hand, so that she can capitalize on it and make good plays. It’s great,” Howard said.
Green admitted the game is finally slowing down for her on both ends.
“You’re mind just slows down and you just have to take a deep breath once you get that serious into it, and yeah, it is definitely slowing down,” she said. “Just through all the practices and all the work that we’ve done, it slows down quite a bit.”
She’s also becoming more of a factor in Kentucky’s pressure defense that helped the Cats open the game with a 13-0 run.
“Transition defense is definitely something we try to take pride in and just picking up the ball and full-court press,” Green said after the win. “A few times we let them get a few runs, but I thought we came back and really stepped it up and started playing Kentucky defense.”
Green is also more active in Kentucky’s transition offense.
“That’s what we work on in practice and that makes the game a whole lot more fun when we can do that,” Green said. “We take transition to heart, so when we can have runs like that, it makes the game that much more fun.
“Everyone is tough that we play, so we really wanted to make a statement that we’re supposed to be where we’re supposed to be and not back down from anyone. So, just coming out with all of the intensity and bringing our defense to the plate really shows a lot about us.”
