Rhyne Howard took Kentucky to the SEC championship game. Dre’una Edwards won it.
The ball sat tucked between the left forearm and hip of Dre’una Edwards, not moving or rotating an inch.
It didn’t move as she meandered through the Bridgestone Arena stands, hugging and smiling with the traveling UK fans.
It didn’t move as she slapped hands with friends young and old, nor when she adjusted her Southeastern Conference championship hat.
Edwards had a death grip on the basketball that moved her to tears, and don’t expect her to let go of it anytime soon.
Edwards had 27 points on Sunday afternoon in Kentucky’s stirring SEC Tournament title game win over No. 1 South Carolina, sinking an open three-pointer with four seconds left to give UK the most unlikely of championship wins over the best team in the country, and a team that had beaten UK twice earlier this season.
It was a moment made for Edwards, a charismatic, exuberant forward who has twice been suspended by Kentucky head coach Kyra Elzy this season.
It was a moment created by Howard, Kentucky’s All-America star and a projected top pick in next month’s WNBA Draft who scored 88 points (the third-most ever in an SEC Tournament) during UK’s four-game fairy tale run to the title.
After the game the pair embraced multiple times — in the immediate aftermath of victory, while receiving their All-SEC Tournament team honors, and while cutting down the nets long after the confetti had fallen.
Edwards was moved to tears as she embraced her teammate.
“We looked at each other and we both said, ‘I love you, man,’” Edwards explained. “Rhyne kept saying, ‘Thank you,’ and I said, ‘Man, this one was for you. I had to get you one before you left, man, I had to.’”
What did Howard think when Edwards launched her shot into the sky?
“You know in the movies when they take the game-winner … that was me,” Howard said. “I don’t even know what I saw. Everybody was just jumping around … I don’t know why (South Carolina) didn’t throw the ball in because we were not set, but it was one of those moments, like picture perfect.”
South Carolina’s last-second heave from mid-court didn’t come close to going in, and then the celebrations could officially begin for the comeback on both a micro and macro level that few saw coming.
In a vacuum, Kentucky’s win over South Carolina was one of persistence.
UK lost by 20 in Columbia in January and by nine to the Gamecocks at home in February, calling a team meeting after that loss to reset the season with UK two games below .500 overall and six games below .500 in SEC play.
The Cats haven’t lost since, despite trialing by 14 points with 9:14 left in Sunday’s game.
South Carolina didn’t score in the final 5:04 and UK ended the game on an 11-0 run.
In the big picture, the win punched UK’s ticket to the NCAA Tournament, a place few people would have predicted UK was headed to just one month ago.
Edwards and Howard have been the chief reasons for this turnaround.
Since returning from her second suspension of the season in late January, Edwards has played at an elite level.
During Kentucky’s current 10-game winning streak, Edwards has averaged 20.5 points per game and 9.4 rebounds per game.
These numbers reflect the game-changing presence Edwards can be at her best — a versatile big that can handle the ball, distribute it effectively and become a go-to option when it matters most.
“I knew I was going to hit the shot. I just had to let it fly,” Edwards said of her winning shot.
Prior to the SEC Tournament, Elzy said she thought the suspensions given to and served by Edwards helped make UK a closer team.
“There is a culture that I want at Kentucky and a standard and expectation which we will have, and she has bought in along with everyone else,” Elzy said. “You weather the storm together, through the good and the bad.”
Howard was on board for all the twists and turns, as one of two UK players (freshman guard Jada Walker the other) to play in all 30 games for Kentucky this season.
There were times when Howard displayed the takeover scoring ability that made her an All-SEC first-team selection for all four of her college seasons. She torched the likes of Auburn and Georgia late in games to give Kentucky what turned out to be crucial conference wins.
But there were also times — against the best teams UK played — when Howard was kept in check: She averaged 17.2 points and a 38.62% shooting percentage in regular-season losses to Indiana, Louisville, South Carolina (twice) and Tennessee.
But in Nashville this week, Howard set the record straight.
She was named the MVP of the tournament, highlighted by a 32-point scoring performance in the quarterfinal win over Tennessee that matched her season high.
Howard has played some of the best basketball of her college career as it comes to an end, averaging 21.0 points per game during UK’s 10-game winning streak.
On Saturday night, Elzy revealed that Howard began her senior season “stressed out and pressure-filled,” leading to a meeting between star player and coach.
“I just told her … what you have done for women’s basketball, what you have done for Kentucky, if you don’t do another thing, you’re accolades speak for themselves,” Elzy said. “I knew in the back of my mind what the endgame was, but I wanted to free her along with this staff to let her have fun, enjoy her senior year, because these are memories and times he will never get back.”
With the benefit of hindsight, plenty of points and Kentucky’s first SEC Tournament title since 1982 now to her name, what does Howard remember about the meeting?
“I just had to realize I can’t control what was happening,” she said. “There was nothing that could be done on my end, so I just had to settle in and confide in my teammates and have fun with them and just go all out for them.”
Plenty of players have brought this moment to Kentucky: Jazmine Massengill’s steady leadership as a senior point guard, Jada Walker’s emergence as a reliable contributor as a freshman, Robyn Benton’s prolific bench scoring just to name a few.
The constants, through the good and the bad, have been Edwards and Howard.
Perhaps that’s what they spoke about postgame, with tears on Edwards’ face and a basketball in her arms.
This story was originally published March 6, 2022 at 7:13 PM.
