Liberty-Kentucky postgame notes

March 20, 2010

Postgame Notes: Liberty University vs. University of Kentucky

Liberty University

Today's game against the University of Kentucky marks the 13th appearance for the Lady Flames in the NCAA Tournament. This is the 10th appearance under the guidance of Head Coach Carey Green. The Lady Flames are 2-9 in NCAA Tournament play during Green's tenure.

Liberty is 1-2 all-time against the University of Kentucky. The Lady Flames are 0-2 under Coach Green, losing to the Wildcats in Green's first season at Liberty 69-57 and now in the NCAA Tournament.

This NCAA Tournament marks the fifth time Liberty has been named a 13 seed. The Lady Flames are now 2-5 all-time as a 13 seed after the loss. In 2005, Liberty made it to the Sweet Sixteen as a 13 seed.

This loss makes four straight first-round losses for the Lady Flames in their last four NCAA Tournament appearances dating back to 2006.

With a lead at halftime, the Lady Flames were 24-1 on the season. They led the Wildcats at halftime 33-35, but could not pull out the victory.

Sophomore Avery Warley recorded her 11th double-double of the season with 17 points and 14 rebounds. Her 14 rebounds are a new Liberty record for rebounds in a single NCAA Tournament game.

Freshman Devon Brown finished with a team-high 24 points before fouling out in the second half. This marked the 19th time this season that Brown led the team in scoring in a game.

Liberty leads the nation in rebounding margin at +14.0 per game. Against Kentucky, they outrebounded the Wildcats 38-26, a margin of +12.

The Lady Flames gave up their most points to an individual opponent in A'dia Mathies. The Louisville native scored a career-high 32 points against Liberty, which was 10 points more than the previous high they gave up.

University of Kentucky

With their 83-77 victory over Liberty, Kentucky advances to the second round of the NCAA Tournament where they will face No. 5 Michigan State on Monday, March 22nd at 7 p.m. Kentucky improves their NCAA Tournament record to 5-6 with the victory and 4-3 in the first round. Kentucky is 1-3 all-time against Michigan State, including 0-1 in the NCAA Tournament.

Kentucky won their 26th game of the season today, setting a new school record for most wins in a single season.

The Wildcats have not lost a first round game since 1991 and have advanced to the second round for a third consecutive time.

Today marked Kentucky's seventh appearance in the NCAA Tournament and their first since 2006. The No. 4 seed was their highest in 27 years. Kentucky was the No. 3 seed in the Mideast during the 1983 tournament. This is the first time in school history that Kentucky has been a No. 4 seed, and they have never played a No. 13 seed.

Today was the first time that Kentucky and Liberty matched up since December 11, 2009, a 69-57 Kentucky triumph.

Today marked the first NCAA Tournament experience for the players of Kentucky, and it ended with the players' first victory during the NCAA Tournament.

Today was head coach Matthew Mitchell's first NCAA Tournament game as a head coach. He appeared in the NCAA Final Four as a graduate assistant with Tennessee during the 1999-00 campaign, and saw tournament action as an assistant at Florida University.

Kentucky trailed 35-33 at halftime, marking the fifth time in the past six games that the Wildcats have trailed at the half. Overall it marked the 11th time this season that Kentucky has trailed at halftime and the fifth time they have come from trailing at halftime to win the game.

Louisville native and freshman A'dia Mathies set a career high in scoring with 32 points, which also is a new Kentucky NCAA Tournament record, breaking the mark of Lea Wise. Wise scored 30 points against Illinois on March 14, 1982. Mathies led the Wildcats in scoring with 14 in the first half. Mathies was the first SEC Freshman of the Year in the Lady Wildcat's history. Today marked her sixth game reaching the 20 point plateau and first reaching the 30 point mark.

Victoria Dunlap, the SEC Player of the Year, set a new Kentucky NCAA individual single-game record with five steals in the first half. Patty Jo Hedges, Leslie Nichols and Erica Jackson each had four steals in a NCAA Tournament Game in the past. Dunlap also tied a school NCAA record with nine made free throws.

Kentucky has reached double digits in steals in their past six games. Today, the Wildcats only needed the first half to do it, finishing the first 20 minutes of action with 11 steals.

Kentucky finished the game with 16 steals. Dunlap led the Wildcats with 5, while Mathies and Lydia Watkins each had four steals.

Kentucky was able to get to the bonus at the 13:18 mark of the second half, taking advantage of 20 free throw attempts over the final 13:18. The Wildcats connected on 14 of those 20 attempts.

Sophomore guard Keyla Snowden hit four three-pointers on seven attempts. In all, Kentucky was 7-11 on threes, which led to 64%, good for the highest three-point shooting percentage in school history for a NCAA Tournament game.

Kentucky was outrebounded 38-26, giving Liberty a +12 margin on the boards. However, this is lower than the Lady Flames normal rebounding margin, which was +14 coming into the tournament.

University of Louisville Athletics