Kentucky doesn't want fatigue to be an excuse for South Carolina loss

Kentucky lost to South Carolina by 23 points on Friday to end its SEC Tournament run, and there are a number of reasons as to how you could say it happened. South Carolina hadn’t played since their victory over the Cats on Sunday, while Kentucky was heading into its third game in three days.

You could also point to the tournament being in South Carolina’s home state. Of course, the Gamecock fans outnumbered Big Blue Nation mightily in Bon Secours Wellness Arena, and it truly felt like a true road game for Kentucky.

However, at the end of the day, those are cheap excuses. Sure, they did play a factor in the result of the game, but they didn’t decide the game as a whole. Kentucky didn’t lose because of those things. Kentucky lost because they shot 43% from the field and turned the ball over 19 times.

Following the game, Clara Strack made sure to make it clear that those cheap excuses are nothing more than what they really are.

“We played two games these past two days, but I don’t think we want to make excuses for ourselves,” Strack said. “Obviously, we’re tired, obviously fatigued, but I think we’re still able to fight through that. I think we just have to clean up the little things. We had turnovers, we didn’t execute on defense as well. I don’t think we want to make excuses that we were tired.”

Get the On3 Top 10 Newsletter in your inbox every morning

By clicking "Subscribe to Newsletter", I agree to On3's Privacy Notice, Terms, and use of my personal information described therein.

Alongside her was Teonni Key, who added to her sentiment. Like her teammate, Key mentioned how Kentucky simply has to correct the minor things, but she also shed some light on what the Cats have to do from a mentality aspect moving forward.

“I think the biggest key, honestly, we kept preaching to ourselves we got to stay together,” Key noted. “We got to play our basketball, control what we can control and get better. That’s the biggest focus for us moving forward in March so we can make a deep run. We just got to clean up some of the little stuff and get better each game.”

With the first round of the NCAA Tournament not starting until March 20-21, Kentucky will have some time to get some of that much-needed rest after a grueling conference tournament.