Nov. 14, 2011
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 18/15 Kentucky women’s basketball team returns to Memorial Coliseum Tuesday, Nov. 15 to play host to first-time opponent Jacksonville State in the inaugural “Terry Hall Memorial Classic.” Tipoff is slated for 11 a.m. ET.
Hall holds the distinction of being the winningest coach in UK women’s basketball history as well as owning the best winning percentage of any coach to guide the program. UK will honor the former coach each season by naming the first home game after her.
“We are excited to get back on the court and play,” UK Hoops head coach Matthew Mitchell said. “Friday night’s game gave us a lot of areas where we can improve. The game against Morehead State, we were able to watch that film and see some areas where we can take steps forward, certainly at this time of year. There are a lot of things to improve on. In the Morehead State game, they played a really, really tough game and were very intense in that first half. We watched that yesterday as a team and hopefully we have learned some things. We had a good practice yesterday and we’ll have to get ready for an early morning start tomorrow which we’re excited for.”
The Wildcats (1-0) are coming off a 96-60 win at Morehead State on Friday in their season opener. Despite trailing by one at the half (32-31), UK exploded on a 36-10 run in the second stanza to win its third consecutive season opener and eighth-straight victory over the Lady Eagles. The Wildcats’ 65 second-half points were the most points in a half in school history.
Sophomore Kastine Evans (Salem, Conn.) was impressive for the Wildcats, as she came off the bench to record a career-high 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting. Also in double digits were All-SEC first team selection A’dia Mathies (Louisville, Ky.) with 16 points, and sharp-shooter Keyla Snowden with 15, including three 3-pointers. Sophomore Maegan Conwright (Arlington, Texas) followed with 11 points and a career-high tying five assists.
Jacksonville State, located in Jacksonville, Ala., was picked to finish ninth by the Ohio Valley Conference's coaches and sports information directors. The Gamecocks, led by Annette Watts in her second season at JSU, travel to Lexington after falling at Mississippi State on Friday, 78-41.
Fans interested in tickets can visit the Joe Craft Center ticket office, go to UKathletics.com, or call the UK ticket office at 1-800-928-CATS.
Single-game reserved tickets are available at a cost of $7 for all ages. General admission tickets for adults are also $7 while single-game general admission tickets for seniors and children (18 and under, 65 and over) are only $4. Age 5 and under are admitted free.
Season tickets for the entire 18-game home schedule are also still available for $45, except lower-level chair back seating, which are $60 and sold out.
If not able to attend the game, it can be heard live on the UK IMG Sports Radio Network with Neil Price calling the action for the sixth consecutive season. Fans can follow the UK Hoops team on Twitter at @UKHoopCats and use #UKHoops to comment on the game. A live video stream is available on the subscription video portion of www.UKathletics.com.
Because UK classes are in session, here’s some pertinent parking information you’ll need to know: Please do not park in designated University lots as vehicles will be subject to ticket/tow.
Fans are encouraged to park in Parking Structure 5 located next to Kennedy's Bookstore on Limestone Avenue. Parking within Parking Structure 5 will be available free of charge. When you enter the structure, you will receive a white voucher. Upon arrival at Memorial Coliseum, please exchange your white voucher with a pink payment voucher with any UK Event Staff working the entrances to Memorial Coliseum or at the Guest Services desk, located inside the Lexington Avenue Lobby. Insert the pink payment voucher to exit Parking Structure #5.
There also will be a shuttle from Parking Structure #5 to Memorial Coliseum, which will begin at 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. To access the shuttle, walk across/above Limestone, via the skybridge (accessible on Floor 3 of the parking structure). Shuttle picks up at the end of the sidewalk on Administration Drive.
UK Hoops Pregame Quotes - Jacksonville State
Opening statement…
“We are excited to get back on the court and play. Friday night’s game gave us a lot of areas where we can improve. The game against Morehead State, we were able to watch that film and see some areas where we can take steps forward, certainly at this time of year. There are a lot of things to improve on. In the Morehead State game, they played a really, really tough game and were very intense in that first half. We watched that yesterday as a team and hopefully we have learned some things. We had a good practice yesterday and we’ll have to get ready for an early morning start tomorrow which we’re excited for.”
On preparations for the early start to this game (11 a.m. ET)…
“We will do our game prep this evening during practice and we will have scouting in the morning at 7 a.m. That’s what we’ve done in the past. We’ve done our game day practice the day before and we’ll do that this afternoon.”
On the play of sophomore guard Kastine Evans…
“Kastine Evans has an unbelievable passion for excellence and that really permeates through her entire life. She is a great student, she works very hard in the classroom, makes excellent grades, gives in the community and does community service and has a real high character. She has a great passion for being an excellent basketball player and I’m telling you she worked unbelievably hard in the offseason and it shows. It’s just a really exciting thing as a coach to see someone work that hard after you’ve tried to preach that to your team and then see her go out and have success and just flat out play harder than anybody on the team and have the best game.”
On if he was surprised by the rise of Kastine Evans amongst UK’s deep group of guards…
“It is impactful for me to see where people may make assumptions about, ‘This player is more talented than this player, or this player is going to get lost in the shuffle here.’ What your question was; she didn’t listen to any of that. As coaches, we really try hard not to buy into any of that either. If you come in with a McDonald’s All-American status that’s great for press clippings and gives us some positive vibes from a recruiting standpoint but once you get here it doesn’t matter whether you were rated 150th in the country, or 30th in the country. We really try to make it about competition and about honesty, hard work and discipline. Kastine’s embraced those things. For me, it is thrilling to see her be able to break through and playing so well. Sometimes you’ll see players more talented kind of able to rest on that. That hasn’t really happened here.”
On what the difference was between the first and second half against Morehead State on Friday…
“The first half, it was a combination of two things: One, Morehead State was ready to play and energized and looking forward to the game, and they played that way to the best I can tell. I don’t know exactly what was going on, but that’s what it looked like to me. For us, I don’t know if they thought we were going to breeze through the game or if they’d been reading the newspaper and saw we were ranked in the top 20 or something, that’s sort of the feel it was after going back and looking at it on video. We just didn’t give a good Kentucky effort. We’re all about energy and hustle and trying to outwork the other team, and we were outworked in the first half. I have tried to make a real commitment to the team where I am trying to stay as positive as possible and try to teach and not scream and yell and get negative on them. I’m glad I did that because after I looked at the film I was pretty proud of myself the way I handled the situation because after looking at the video it was bad in the first half just from an effort stand point. Morehead State took advantage of that. In the second half we did a lot better job, played with a lot more energy, had more players that kind of woke up. It was a one-point deficit at halftime and so we really are looking tomorrow to come out with a Kentucky effort and focus more on Kentucky than Jacksonville State. We really need to play at a high, high level because we need to get better right now.”
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