For the head coaches on both benches during University of Kentucky’s 72-55 win over MSU’s women’s basketball team was an experience tougher than during other games.
During the warm-up session, MSU coach Mike Bradbury sat on the bench, his arms crossed, legs shaking and chewing gum. Was he nervous with his team about to face University of Kentucky’s team?
“I’m pretty nervous before every game, but I admit I’ll was a little bit more nervous before this game,” Bradbury said. “It was a big game on a big stage.”
Especially because the Eagles are not accustomed to this big stage, games such as the one against UK could help prepare the team for tough games ahead in the OVC and possible post-season games, Bradbury said.
Bradbury’s predecessor, Matthew Mitchell sat on UK’s bench. Mitchell had been MSU coach from 2005 until 2007. Coming back into town and seeing familiar faces created a difficult situation, Mitchell said.
“It was a pretty tough day from that standpoint. I was just trying to stay focused on what our players needed and we needed to win this game badly,” he said.
So did MSU after a tough 64-67 loss on the road against Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville.
Bradbury said “We’ve had a couple of tough days since we got back from Illinois. To our team’s credit, we responded in practice well and tonight I think it showed in our effort.”
The effort showed throughout the game, but in the end it was not enough.
The Wildcats started of with an 8-0 run. 20 seconds into the game UK guard A’dia Mathies scored the first points and her first three-pointer from the left corner. After a successful two-point jump shot by UK’s Carly Morrow, Mathies scored another three-pointer.
MSU Freshman Ashar Harris broke the run scoring on a rebound one-and-a-half minutes into the game.
Six minutes into the game, a jump shot by Ashley Martin gave MSU the 12-10 lead, but 30 seconds later UK’s Mathies tied on a layup. MSU was only able to lead one more time, 15-14, nine minutes into the game.
At halftime, UK had slowly expanded its lead to 37-27. In the first seven minutes of the second half, the Wildcats increased their lead to 51-31, but the Eagles fought back.
“The style of play that Morehead State has makes it very difficult,” Mitchell said. “Morehead State had a great, great defensive game plan and it caused players like A’dia (Mathies) and Amber (Smith) to step up and make big shots.”
The Eagles reduced their lead several times, led by Junior Chyna Bozeman with 18 total game points. Bozeman said this fight back would help in conference play.
“You can get down by 10, 15, or whatever and we proved that we can come together and keep cutting it back down, so that brings our confidence level up,” she said.
But the team could never reduce the spread under 10 points.
Bradbury said “If we get in under ten, it’s a real game the last five minutes. We just couldn’t get enough shots to fall. It seems like when we had a chance, they’d come down off an offensive rebound.”
He said the loss would help the team see their full potential.
“Our kids had a whole different outlook and attitude in the locker room after tonight’s game compared to the Friday night game. I know we’ll build on this,” he said. “If we play this hard and this focused, then we’re going to win our share of games.”
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