Three takeaways from Kentucky’s SEC Tournament semifinal win against No. 18 Tennessee
The old enemy has been defeated yet again, this time with plenty on the line.
The Kentucky women’s basketball team completed its storybook run to the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship game on Saturday night with an 83-74 upset win over the Tennessee Lady Volunteers at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
Kentucky is the No. 7 seed in the tournament, while Tennessee was the No. 3 seed.
The Cats made a barrage of shots from distance and never trailed in the game, avenging an early-season blowout loss in Knoxville with Saturday’s result.
Kyra Elzy’s Cats will play No. 1 South Carolina on Sunday afternoon for the SEC Tournament title, a borderline impossible statement to have thought or written as little as one month ago.
South Carolina beat UK twice earlier this season, 74-54 at home and 59-50 in Lexington.
But it was that latest triumph that helped spark UK’s late-season resurgence.
Kentucky 83, Tennessee 74
The star: As a collective, Kentucky’s distance shooting deserves massive credit. After making nine three-pointers against LSU on Friday night, the Cats made 12 three-pointers on Saturday night.
The stats: UK had four players score in double figures: Rhyne Howard with 24, Robyn Benton and Jada Walker each with 16 and Treasure Hunt with 11.
The status: Kentucky is 18-11 overall and 11-8 against SEC schools. UK has won nine straight games, all against SEC opponents. It’s the longest winning streak for UK against SEC opponents since the 2011-12 season.
Tennessee is 23-8 overall and 12-6 against SEC schools.
Three takeaways
1. IN A HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT, THE CATS WEATHERED THE STORM.
Kentucky’s remarkable SEC Tournament semifinal win over Tennessee was a wire-to-wire victory, as the Cats never trailed.
But the process of getting from start to finish was not anything close to simple.
In front of more than 9,000 fans, the vast majority of whom were wearing orange and white, UK, withstood multiple runs from the Lady Vols that could have shifted momentum for good.
“We’ve been in hostile environments all year,” Elzy said. “Our nonconference prepared us for this moment. We’re accustomed to playing in hostile environments, and we stepped up to the challenge today.”
Senior guards Robyn Benton and Rhyne Howard, who combined to go 6-10 on three-point shots, echoed similar thoughts.
“We know how to step up to the challenge. We love when the fans are going against us,” Howard said. “It’s no tsomething that we’re new to, but we love just showing what we can do.”
“We’re just stepping up to the challenge and taking it head on,” Benton added.
Tennessee pulled the game to within one scoring possession on two occasions in the fourth quarter, but UK survived each time.
“I wanted to make sure that we brought the defensive heat and pursued the basketball,” Elzy said of UK’s defensive effort, which helped the Cats establish a 14-3 lead less than four minutes into the game. “We’re not going to out-jump anyone (so) get a rebound and run. That was the theme: Rebound and run.”
UK had 10 fastbreak points to Tennessee’s one.
Kentucky’s rigorous non-conference road schedule, along with life in the SEC, meant the Wildcats had plenty of experience playing in front of large, loud crowds this season.
There were nonconference tests at Indiana and Louisville, along with SEC road games at South Carolina, Tennessee and LSU.
Often those games resulted in lopsided losses against Kentucky.
But not Saturday night. And not in March so far.
2. UK CONTINUES HOT SHOOTING FROM DISTANCE.
Entering Saturday night’s semifinal, Kentucky still averaged just 5.7 made three-pointers per game this season.
This statistic took into account UK’s 9-for-19 shooting performance from distance in Friday’s quarterfinal win over No. 6 LSU, and reflected just how uncommon three-point shooting success has been for the Cats this season.
UK made eight or more three-pointers in just seven of its 28 games entering Saturday’s contest against Tennessee, but Elzy’s team blew past that mark against the Lady Volunteers.
By halftime, UK was 9-of-15 from three-point range with four players — Benton, Howard, Treasure Hunt and Walker — connecting on multiple three-point shots.
Kentucky finished the game 12-of-24 on shots from distance, while Tennessee was 3-of-8.
“We like to shoot, and when we see it going in we’re going to keep shooting it,” Howard said. “We are moving the ball really well to find the open person. We’re just connecting on all levels.”
The three-point shot is much less important to the Lady Vols than the Cats, as Tennessee entered Saturday’s game averaging just 4.4 made three-pointers per game.
“I thought we gave up too many open threes,” Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper said. “Several of those threes in the first half came off of offensive boards and kick-outs. That’s deflating to a team.”
“We just didn’t affect them,” Harper added about UK’s distance shooting. “They did exactly what they wanted to do with their pace.”
The points in the paint battle was one that Tennessee desperately needed to win, and by a substantial margin given UK’s hot shooting from deep.
The interior points battle went to Tennessee, 42-28, although not nearly enough to make up for the disparity in the three-point shooting.
3. UK IS ON THE DOORSTEP OF SEC TOURNAMENT HISTORY.
Kentucky has won the SEC Tournament only once in its history, and that came all the way back in 1982, just the third time the event took place.
Earlier this season, the Kentucky program honored that 1982 SEC Tournament title-winning team during a home game at Rupp Arena in January.
In more recent times, Kentucky last made the SEC Tournament championship game in 2014.
UK lost the title game of the SEC Tournament in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2014.
Now, despite being a No. 7 seed in this year’s tournament and needing to upset a pair of Associated Press Top 25 teams in the quarterfinals and semifinals, the Cats are back on the big stage.
UK is the lowest seeded team to reach the SEC Tournament championship game since Arkansas (No. 10 seed) in 2019.
Kentucky will have to score its most unlikely upset yet to bring the SEC Tournament crown back to Lexington: The Wildcats haven’t beaten South Carolina since February 2019.
The coaching matchup on Sunday between Elzy and South Carolina’s Dawn Staley marks the second straight year that two Black women head coaches meet in the SEC Tournament final.
That happened for the first time last year with Staley and Georgia’s Joni Taylor.
“As far as making history, that’s amazing. Representation matters,” Elzy said Saturday night. “Coach Staley has been a voice for women’s basketball, women and women of color. I grew up respecting and idolizing Coach Staley, but tomorrow it’s going to be two coaches, competitors, and I’m glad people get to look on TV and see women of color in leadership roles. It matters.”
SEC Tournament scores, schedule
At Bridgestone Arena in Nashville
All times Eastern
Wednesday
No. 13 Vanderbilt 85, No. 12 Texas A&M 69
No. 11 Alabama 75, No. 14 Auburn 68
Thursday
No. 8 Arkansas 61, No. 9 Missouri 52
No. 5 Florida 53, No. 13 Vanderbilt 52
No. 7 Kentucky 83, No. 10 Mississippi State 67
No. 11 Alabama 74, No. 6 Georgia 62
Friday
No. 1 South Carolina 76, No. 8 Arkansas 54
No. 4 Ole Miss 70, No. 5 Florida 60
No. 7 Kentucky 78, No. 2 LSU 63
No. 3 Tennessee 74, No. 11 Alabama 59
Saturday
No. 1 South Carolina 61, No. 4 Ole Miss 51
No. 7 Kentucky 83, No. 3 Tennessee 74
Sunday
2 p.m.: No. 1 South Carolina (29-1) vs. No. 7 Kentucky (18-11)
TV
▪ Championship game (ESPN2)
This story was originally published March 5, 2022 at 9:50 PM.
