Kentucky Wildcats guard A'dia Mathies went 0-for-5 from the field and had three rebounds in a 61-41 win over the Navy Midshipmen in the first round of the 2013 NCAA Tournament. In her recap of the game, Queenie described Mathies' performance as "...one of the most awful games I've ever seen from her."
Greg Alan Edwards of SB Nation's A Sea of Blue insists that the Wildcats can't afford to have another poor performance from Mathies against the Dayton Flyers in tonight's second round game.
The one thing that UK cannot afford is for Senior guard and Team Captain A'Dia Mathies to disappear again. After going scoreless in the opening round against Navy, UK had to find a way to get A'Dia out on Dayton early and often. Navy's game plan of denying Mathies the ball worked well against her, but the rest of the team picked up the slack. Counting on that happening twice is not a good strategy. Kentucky has scorers, of that, there is no doubt. Kentucky needs Mathies. She is the heart and soul of this team. Kentucky without A'Dia Mathies is a good team. Kentucky WITH A'Dia Mathies is a Final Four team.
Dayton coach Jim Jabir was disappointed with the way his team allowed St. John's to penetrate in the first round game and that should be one thing that Kentucky looks to exploit as well: attacking the basket instead of settling for jumpers.
For more on the Kentucky, visit A Sea of Blue's women's basketball section. For more on first round performances for both Dayton and Kentucky, check out our Bridgeport region storystream.