Kyra Elzy said to "go straight to questions" to open her press conference after UK's 86-72 loss to Iowa.
In its biggest game of the season, Kentucky came up empty. Iowa jumped in front 11-0 and dominated Kentucky on both ends of the court to beat UK 86-72 in an NCAA Tournament second-round game Tuesday that was not nearly as close as the final score might indicate.
All-American Rhyne Howard had 28 points, eight assists and five rebounds for UK but was not close to the best player on the court this game. That was Iowa freshman Caitlin Clark who had 35 points on 13-for-21 shooting — her 12th 30-point game this season — along with seven rebounds and six assists.
“I thought early on we had some good looks at the rim,” Kentucky coach Kyra Elzy said. “We let our offense (missed shots) affect our defense. We dug ourselves in a hole and never recovered.
Iowa (19-8) hit 35 of 61 shots, including 10 3-pointers, while UK was 26 of 74 (35 percent) against one of the nation’s worst defenses.
Elzy talked extensively Monday about the need to not let Clark get comfortable. The Cats could never do that as she got shots she wanted outside and inside.
Elzy said the plan was to “play smart defense” on Clark and rotate fresh bodies on her as well as faceguard her as much as possible. The plan was a total failure.
“She did a great job continuing to move. It thought she hit some really tough shots,” Elzy said. “We could have been better defensively today. Iowa played well. They pounded the ball inside. We didn’t give enough resistance. Overall today wasn’t our day. Disappointing finish. We have to learn from this and grow.”
Howard gave Clark credit for dominating UK’s defense. The UK junior said she’s been in that zone when no matter what a team did against her defensively.
“She made tough shots. She was hitting. There was not much we could have done,” Howard said after the loss. “She’s a great player and we know she can score (Clark led the nation in scoring). We have got to live with that.”
They also have to live with knowing their intensity and fight just was not there in the first half when Clark outscored UK by herself for most of the half.
“When you are not playing good defense, any team can score that easily,” Howard admitted. “We knew we were making a lot of mistakes.”
What about the seeming lack of energy?
“We did start out with high energy but when shots are not falling we get down on ourselves,” Howard said.
The shots never fail. Howard was 8-for-23 from the field, Chasity Patterson 1-for-13. Dre’Una Edwards had 16 points on 7-for-12 shooting while Jazmine Massengill was 4-for-8.
What surprised me was that junior Blair Green was 2-for-4 overall and made two of three shots in the first quarter when she combined with Edwards for nine of UK’s 11 points. However, she ended up playing only 14 minutes compared to 27 for Patterson who missed 12 of her 13 shots in her final UK game.
