Kentucky WBB 'played to our strengths', leading to 16 blocked shots against NKU

Against Northern Kentucky, Kentucky swatted away 16 total shots — good enough for the second-most in a single game in program history. Clara Silva had five, Clara Strack had four, Georgia Amoore and Amelia Hassett had three and Teonni Key had one.

What helps in getting those blocks? Well, size. Among those five players who recorded one or more blocks against the Norse, four of them are at least 6-foot-3. It’s important that Kentucky utilizies their size to make up for their lack of quickness, especially when you factor in the offseason injuries to Jordan Obi and Dominika Paurová — two players who would have brought some quickness to this team.

“We played to our strengths,” Kenny Brooks said following Kentucky’s 70-41 win. “We’re not gonna be faster than everyone, as a matter of fact, you might consider us like tall turtles. We don’t move very fast laterally, but we’re very tall. So, we have to play to our strengths. There’s some teams out there that can press and do lots of different things, but they can’t do anything once you get there because they don’t have the length.”

He added, “We’re learning how to use our length. Like today, sometimes I let them go. [Clara Strack] had three fouls early in the third. I put her back in at the end to get a couple of plays, but she’s gonna have to learn how to play without fouling. Amelia Hassett had the same thing. They’re learning how to use their length. They’re learning where their help is coming from, and we rotate with some more length. That’s gonna have to be something that’s gonna be a plus for us this year.”

The program record for blocks in a game as a team is 19, and the individual record is seven. Will we see one of (or both of) those records broken this season?

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