Kenny Brooks wanted 'to go into a quick hitter' on final possession against Tennessee

Kentucky’s two-point loss at Tennessee was just as puzzling as it was heartbreaking. At the very end of the game with just 8.3 seconds left, the Lady Vols missed two free throws and after a Clara Strack rebound, Kenny Brooks called timeout to advance the ball to halfcourt and get a potential game-winning or game-tying plan drawn up.

Then, after a Jordan Obi inbounds pass to Strack, Asia Boone had the ball up, got tied up with a Tennessee player, and a jumpball was called with exactly two seconds left with the possession arrow pointing to Kentucky. The Cats had one final chance to draw something up — to draw up another potential LSU-like moment. Instead? Well… nothing.

This time, Tonie Morgan was trying to pass the ball in, but after a couple of seconds, she threw the ball at Talaysia Cooper’s legs and… that was it. No shot, nothing. Morgan just quite literally handed Tennessee the 60-58 win.

Following the game, KSR asked Brooks what was meant to occur on the final possession, and surprise, it wasn’t that.

“We got the opportunity that we wanted when it was eight seconds left, maybe a little bit more, we just didn’t finish the play out,” Brooks said of the initial inbounds play. “We were trying to get Tonie on a handoff. Asia Boone didn’t have the shot in a continuity situation. They tied us up with only two seconds left.”

Then, there was the very last moment of the game. It sounds like Brooks wanted to set up someone down low, most likely Clara Strack, to tie the game. It obviously did not go according to plan. Even Brooks wasn’t totally sure what happened or why it happened.

“We were going to go into a quick hitter, and Clara saw her numbers, and I don’t know if Tonie thought that time was running out, and tried to do it off her leg, but I thought she had an opportunity to get it inside. We just didn’t execute it.”

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