Kentucky women’s basketball rallies at Florida for first SEC win of season
Kentucky women’s basketball earned its first conference win on Sunday afternoon, 81-75, at Florida. The Gators had led by as many as 16 points before halftime.
Following UK’s impressive show of determination in a home loss to No. 1 South Carolina on Thursday, the Cats’ hustle seemed to have made the trip to Gainesville.
A difficult first quarter put the Wildcats (9-9, 1-5 SEC) behind, though. UK, which had lost five straight games, managed to settle into its defense after a quick 3-for-3 start from the field for the Gators, who capitalized on their trips to the free-throw line.
Florida (16-6, 1-4) entered Sunday’s play second in the Southeastern Conference in made free throws per game, with just over 16 makes. And despite scoring droughts in that first quarter, Florida maintained a lead by driving to the basket and drawing fouls.
The Gators made 8 of 10 free throws in the first 10 minutes and outscored UK 18-10 in the first quarter.
In the second quarter, UK eased into a zone defense and limited their fouls, and the Gators only made two of four free-throw attempts. Two of those attempts came after a controversial intentional foul call on Kennedy Cambridge.
Florida’s KK Deans hit four quick three-pointers early on in the second quarter, while UK did not connect on its first until Blair Green ended the Cats’ drought from beyond the arc with about a minute remaining before the break.
Though the Gators once led by 16 in the first half, a 16-6 run by the Wildcats cut the lead down to six at halftime. UK’s defense held Florida to one basket on its final seven attempts from the field to end the half.
“It wasn’t magic, you know,” UK head coach Kyra Elzy said of the comeback. “Usually in practice, we do defensive intensity and we’re down 10 points, the practice team is always up on us, and we have to get defensive stops in order for us to score. So we’ve been in that situation before, but this is the resiliency and the toughness of this team to buckle down and get defensive stops when we had to and be able to adjust to how they were calling the game.”
UK’s best offensive stretch came in the third quarter, when the Cats built off a quick two points from Jada Walker off a long pass from Maddie Scherr, and the Wildcats managed to pull within one with less than three minutes remaining in the period.
UK had several opportunities to take the lead but wasn’t quite able to get there until two free throws from Scherr put the Cats on top 50-49 with just over a minute remaining in the third quarter. The Wildcats outscored Florida 23-15 in that quarter.
Foul trouble reared its head once more for Kentucky in the fourth quarter, with the Wildcats putting Florida back in the bonus at around the six-minute mark.
But otherwise defensively, Kentucky remained focused. At the 8:50 mark in the fourth quarter, UK had 15 steals — the most by any SEC team in a game this season. (The Wildcats finished with 17.)
“Changing up our defense,” Elzy said of what worked. “And then our players just playing fearless. We have to get out and fly around. We must generate points from our defense, so I thought we were really aggressive today.”
Kentucky’s defense proved to be the difference. The Wildcats scored 28 points off turnovers, the most of any opponent against Florida this season.
Despite UK’s abysmal three-point percentage on the day — 12.5% on 2-for-16 shooting — it persevered. Robyn Benton’s 17 points in the final 10 minutes of the game included the other of the Cats’ threes.
A late push from the Gators brought Florida within three with 24 seconds left, but a pair of free throws from Robyn Benton made it a two-possession game. During that trip to the line, Benton knowingly smiled directly at the TV camera.
“I love it,” Elzy said of the moment. “We need it. We need all energy, all swag. But you know, I thought her will to win along with the rest of the team … we were locked in. Down 16, they were talking in the huddle. ‘We win this four minutes, we win this four minutes, get back in the game.’ So they were locked in for 40 minutes and we needed all of it.”
Florida came back with a quick bucket from Deans with seven seconds to go. But Benton delivered two more free-throws on the Cats’ next possession.
Adebola Adeyeye’s free throw — the first point in the quarter scored by someone other than Benton or Walker — set the final margin.
Benton finished the game with a career-high 29 points, including 10-for-10 from the free-throw line. She also grabbed five rebounds and had two assists and three steals.
Walker scored 19 points and contributed seven rebounds, two assists and three steals.
Scherr delivered 18 points, including all eight of her free-throw attempts, and she had six rebounds, three assists and four steals.
Deans led the Gators in scoring with 28 points. She and Ra Shaya Kyle led Florida in rebounds with eight apiece. Kyle also scored in double figures with 13 points.
Kentucky’s win over Florida ties UK’s largest SEC comeback win on the road with 16 points. The last time this happened was in Feb. 2007 when the Wildcats rallied from a 16-point deficit at Ole Miss.
“Hopefully, being able to win a game, just getting us over the hump, we can have a lot of confidence from here,” Elzy said. “But, I think, even the games that we were losing, we continued to progress. It just was not showing up in the win-loss column. So it’s good to see that some of our progression showed up in a win today.”
Next game
Kentucky at Mississippi State
When: 1 p.m. Sunday
TV: SEC
Radio: WLAP-AM 630
Records: Kentucky (9-9, 1-5 SEC), Mississippi State 13-5 (2-3)
This story was originally published January 15, 2023 at 5:56 PM.
