UK making magic again in SEC tourney. See how the defending champs pulled another upset.
The Kentucky Wildcats, fresh off their first win in over a month a day earlier against Florida in their opening game of the Southeastern Conference Tournament, demonstrated again Thursday night why they are a team to be reckoned with when the calendar turns to March.
UK won two regular season SEC games in 2022-23 and finished last in the league. The 14th-seeded Wildcats have now won two more in two days in Greenville, S.C., after Thursday’s 71-58 second-round victory over No. 6 seed Alabama.
“You have to have a mental toughness to battle through what we battled through,” UK head coach Kyra Elzy said. “We came to this tournament with two wins. Two wins. A lot of people could have thrown in the towel. This team never did. They continued to practice, continued to believe in this staff, each other and what this program is built around.”
Just hours after No. 13 seed Texas A&M became the lowest-seeded team ever to advance to the SEC Tournament quarterfinals with a 79-72 win over No. 5 Mississippi State, the Wildcats broke the Aggies’ record.
Kentucky captured its first SEC Tournament title in 40 years last season by winning four games in four days as the No. 7 seed. Winning it all this time would require five wins in five days, but the Wildcats (12-18) are two-fifths of the way home.
Up next is a matchup Friday at about 8:30 p.m. against No. 3 seed Tennessee (21-10). The Volunteers were last seen defeating Kentucky 83-63 on Sunday on UK’s Senior Day in Memorial Coliseum.
Following its round-one victory over the Gators on Wednesday, UK starting forward Adebola Adeyeye reiterated that the Wildcats entered this year’s SEC Tournament with the understanding that they needed to have fun on the floor.
And, when UK tied things up at 40 with 2:17 remaining in the third quarter following a 14-4 run Thursday, every player in Kentucky blue had smiles on their faces.
Much like the last time these two teams met, a Feb. 9 matchup in Lexington when Alabama made 13 three-pointers to come back against UK and pull out the win, Thursday night’s game was anybody’s to take for nearly the entire 40 minutes.
However, things looked a little bit different in Greenville. In the regular-season loss, UK led the majority of the game but could not hold on at the end. In round two of the SEC Tournament, Alabama led for 29:11, and at one point in the third quarter was up by as many as 10.
“We were not losing to this team again,” UK guard Jada Walker said. “That was our mindset going into this game, we could beat this team.”
In 17 attempts, Kentucky had not won a single game this season when trailing at the start of the fourth quarter. That ended Thursday night, after Alabama led 45-44 entering the final 10 minutes.
With 8:01 to go in the fourth quarter, UK took its first lead of the game following a second-chance jump shot from Ajae Petty. And the Wildcats never looked back.
Defensive intensity
Alabama (20-10) is a dangerous team from beyond the arc, ranked sixth in the nation in three-point percentage. In the first quarter, it seemed as though the Crimson Tide might repeat its slaughter-by-sharpshooting that caused the Wildcats so much strife at Memorial Coliseum nearly a month ago.
But the Wildcats clearly took notes following that defeat, and did not allow Alabama to exploit them in the same way this time around. Though the Crimson Tide did hit its season average nine three-pointers, UK held Alabama to 9-of-25 shooting (36 percent) from long range.
Kentucky’s Robyn Benton was given a tall task in this one: contain Brittany Davis.
Davis is not only the Crimson Tide’s leading scorer, but she’s fourth in the SEC at 17.6 points per game. At the half, Davis had only two points. She finished with nine.
That said, Alabama head coach Kristy Curry did her homework on UK’s leading scorer, as well.
Benton, who averages 16.8 points per game, was held scoreless. She spent much of the game in foul trouble, but she did her job defensively.
The hero Kentucky needed
Jada Walker has been here before, and, on Thursday night, she was everywhere. One of only three players active for this year’s SEC Tournament who played during last year’s fairytale run to the title, Walker provided the type of defensive intensity and offensive energy UK needed to come out on top.
In the first half alone, the sophomore point guard led all scorers with 13 points, in addition to contributing three assists, two steals and two rebounds. UK is a program that’s dealt with size mismatches and a lack of depth all year, but Walker is no stranger to stepping up. She leads the SEC in steals per game with 2.4, and she was locked in Thursday.
She led all scorers with a career-high 24 points and grabbed a career-tying six steals. A 41.9 percent shooter on the season, Walker made 11 of her 16 attempts ( a career-high 68.8 percent) against the Crimson Tide. That included hitting both of her three-point tries. She finished with seven assists and, perhaps most importantly, zero turnovers.
“Thought Jada Walker was phenomenal on both sides of the ball tonight,” Alabama head coach Kristy Curry said. “She was better than anybody in a white jersey, and sometimes this time of year when you have a kid like that that steps up and makes big plays, she just infused the entire team with confidence.”
Maddie Scherr, Kentucky’s leading shot-blocker with 29 entering Thursday night, swatted six Alabama shots and scored 19 points to go along with three rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Eniya Russell, one of eight players ejected from Wednesday’s win over Florida, took advantage of her fresh legs to contribute 12 badly needed points off the bench, also making both of her attempts from beyond the arc. Russell averages 3.8 points per game on the season.
“Built different,” Elzy said. “That has been our mantra all year. We battled through adversity, not always coming out on the side that we wanted to come out on. But I kept seeing us progress. We were doing things better. Just having the right mindset and togetherness. We are truly family and we battle together through the good and the bad.”
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
No. 7 Georgia 63, No. 10 Auburn 47
No. 14 Kentucky 71, No. 6 Alabama 58
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. No. 7 Georgia (SEC Network)
About 8:30 p.m.: No. 3 Tennessee vs. No. 14 Kentucky (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 2, 2023 at 11:20 PM.