Kentucky survives SEC tourney opener with furious finish in game featuring eight ejections

The University of Kentucky women’s basketball team entered this week’s Southeastern Conference Tournament as the No. 14 seed in the 14-team field, but the Wildcats are in Greenville, S.C., to defend their 2022 championship — and defend they did in Wednesday’s opening round.

Kentucky defeated No. 11 seed Florida 72-57 in a game that featured a first-half delay that lasted longer than halftime, the result of a scuffle between the rivals that spilled into UK head coach Kyra Elzy and the Wildcats’ bench and led to eight players being ejected.

Kentucky, which entered Wednesday on a seven-game losing streak, nursed a small lead for most of the game before closing on a 29-13 run after briefly falling behind early in the fourth quarter.

Robyn Benton scored 20 points to lead Kentucky, which also got 11 points and 17 rebounds from Adebola Adeyeye, who became a starter when Nyah Leveretter was lost for the season with a torn ACL on Feb. 19. Jada Walker added 13 points and Maddie Scherr, who missed a good portion of Wednesday’s first half shaking off an injury, finished with 10.

“We beat this team before,” Walker said of Florida. “So coming into the game we were like, ‘Yeah, we got a win against this team, so we should win again.’”

The Wildcats advanced to a second-round game Thursday against No. 6 seed Alabama (20-9). Tip-off time is approximately 8:30 p.m. (SEC Network), following Thursday night’s first game between Georgia and Auburn. Alabama won the teams’ only regular-season meeting, 72-65, on Feb. 9 in Memorial Coliseum.

Wednesday’s game was also the second meeting this season between Kentucky and Florida. The Wildcats won the first 81-75 on Jan. 15 in Gainesville.

It became apparent in the second quarter Wednesday that these teams had seen enough of each other.

Eight ejections

Tensions bubbled over with 5:26 remaining in the opening half.

After a couple of closely contested plays involving Florida’s Tatyana Wyche and Kentucky’s Ajae Petty, Wyche angrily threw the ball in the direction of Petty, who was walking away. Wyche then charged after Petty, caught up to her in front of the Kentucky bench and ended up running into Elzy and several UK players and coaches. Several of Wyche’s teammates entered the UK bench area as well.

Officials, players and coaches pulled everyone apart before any punches were thrown but order was not immediately restored.

After 22 minutes of the officials deliberating and attempting to decipher what exactly occurred, eight players were ejected — four from each team.

Kentucky’s Saniah Tyler, Eniya Russell, Cassidy Rowe and Zennia Thomas were ejected as reserve players exiting the bench during the dust-up.

Florida’s Wyche was ejected for fighting and her sister, Taliyah, was tossed out for exiting the bench as were Gators teammates Ra Shaya Kyle and Faith Dut.

Petty and Benton were issued technical fouls, as was the Kentucky bench.

Tatyana Wyche, Myka Perry and the Florida bench received technicals for the Gators.

No free throws were shot as a result of the technical fouls.

Only 13 total points were scored in the second quarter, and the Wildcats led 22-21 at the half.

“This is two teams battling for wins,” Elzy said. “The intensity was high. The emotions were high. Obviously myself or Coach (Kelly Rae) Finley, that’s not how we want to play out, and we will both address our teams. It was an unfortunate situation, and it’s a learning experience for all coaches and student athletes.”

Finley also was disappointed in the altercation.

“Well, obviously that’s not how we want to represent ourselves, as Florida women’s basketball and in the competitive spirit,” she said. “So first and foremost I apologize for that, because that is not representative of the SEC, University of Florida, or how we compete.”

A test of depth

Kentucky’s depth, depleted for a variety of reasons throughout this season, was put to the test again Wednesday.

Scherr left the game in the first quarter following apparent contact with another player that led to an undisclosed injury.

The one bright spot from the long first-half delay came in the form of giving Scherr time to warm up in the tunnel and return to the court before halftime. Scherr, who scored no points in the first half, finished with 10 points, four rebounds and six assists.

“It just speaks to the toughness she has,” Elzy said of Scherr. “She wanted to get back on the floor, help her team win. But her mental toughness is huge, and we need it for us to continue to be successful.”

The Wildcats took advantage of Florida losing two frontcourt starters to ejections in Dut and Kyle by outrebounding the Gators 45-39 and outscoring UF 16-9 on second-chance points.

And, despite Florida regaining its first lead since the scoreboard read 4-2 with 9:31 remaining in the fourth quarter, Kentucky elevated its defense and ended the game on a 16-5 run.

The Wildcats’ non-stop hustle limited Florida to 22-for-70 shooting from the field (31.4 percent).

Benton closed the win for Kentucky with a three-point basket in the final seconds.

She then did the “Gator chomp” with a smile.

“Everyone keeps asking me about the run from last year,” Elzy said. “Which was magical; it was an amazing run. Fairy tales do come true. But this is a different team. Ten new players, so we don’t really focus on last year. Right now all I’m trying to focus on with this team, 1-0, right now. This is the present moment. 1-0, what can we do to get this game. 1-0. We can’t look past this game, we can only focus on the now. That’s our message.”

SEC Tournament

At Greenville, S.C.

Wednesday

No. 13 seed Texas A&M 77, No. 12 Vanderbilt 70

No. 14 Kentucky 72, No. 11 Florida 57

Thursday

No. 8 Arkansas 85, No. 9 Missouri 74

No. 13 Texas A&M 79, No. 5 Mississippi State 72

6 p.m.: No. 7 Georgia vs. No. 10 Auburn (SEC Network)

About 8:30 p.m.: No. 14 Kentucky vs. No. 6 Alabama (SEC Network)

Friday

Noon: No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 8 Arkansas (SEC Network)

About 2:30 p.m.: No. 4 Ole Miss vs. No. 13 Texas A&M (SEC Network)

6 p.m.: No. 2 LSU vs. Georgia-Auburn winner (SEC Network)

About 8:30 p.m.: No. 3 Tennessee vs. Kentucky-Alabama winner (SEC Network)

Saturday

Semifinal games at 4:30 and 7 p.m. (ESPNU)

Sunday

3 p.m.: Championship game (ESPN)

This story was originally published March 1, 2023 at 5:04 PM.