The end of the road: Kentucky falls 80-71 to Tennessee in SEC Tournament quarterfinals

In last year’s SEC Tournament matchup between Kentucky and Tennessee, the Wildcats shocked the Volunteers in the semifinals prior to achieving their first tourney title since 1982.

This season, the matchup arrived in the quarterfinals just five days after the Volunteers handed UK its seventh-straight loss, ending the regular season with an 83-63 rout.

No. 3-seed Tennessee arrived Friday night in Greenville, S.C., fully rested and ready to go, while No. 14 UK was riding high on a regular season-tying two SEC victories in as many days.

The Lady Vols ended Kentucky’s season with an 80-71 victory but the prideful Wildcats stayed in it till the end. Much like most of Kentucky’s rebuilding season, UK played amid foul trouble, injuries and other adversity Friday night.

Just like it did Sunday, when Tennessee got out of the gate with a 17-2 lead, the Volunteers started fast Friday, building a 36-19 lead with 2:46 left in the first half. Unlike Sunday, the Wildcats clawed back, scoring 11 consecutive points before settling for a 38-30 halftime deficit.

“I thought (Kentucky) played a lot better,” Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper said. “They’re playing with momentum, nothing to lose, they’re in a tournament, they’re feeling good. I think the challenge of playing for us — obviously we played them back-to-back. The challenge is you want to keep doing what worked, but you have to anticipate changes needing to be made.”

A trio of three-pointers from Maddie Scherr, Blair Green and Jada Walker revitalized the Wildcats and handed Tennessee the same reminder UK gave to both Florida and Alabama this week: Kentucky is a dangerous team in March.

However, Tennessee has been a dangerous team all year. After beginning 7-6, the Volunteers have gone 15-4. And, even though the Wildcats found themselves within punching distance at 53-48 to start of the fourth quarter, the final 10 minutes came down to skill and depth — both of which the Vols had in ample supply.

“I’m proud of my team coming in here,” Green said. “We could have just died down and been the 14th seed and laid it down and just had like what everyone expected. We kind of made history with being the 14th seed that won the first two games, so I am proud of that and I’m proud of going out with what I knew we could do.”

Sharing the ball

Tennessee All-SEC first-team selections Rickea Jackson and Jordan Horston project as top-10 picks in this year’s WNBA Draft, but any Tennessee player is capable of going off at any given time.

Starting guard Tess Darby was a prime example Friday night. If Kentucky’s Jada Walker was hounding Horston, and Horston couldn’t find a way to break through in the paint, all she needed to do was pass the ball out to Darby to shoot a dagger from beyond the arc.

Darby, who went 2-of-4 from long range Sunday, was 4-of-5 on three-pointers Friday night and contributed 12 important points to the season-high 34 by Jackson and the 21 from Horston.

Harper’s team spreads the ball around, plays fast, and tries to take advantage of unprepared or unbalanced opponents.

No one more impressively took advantage than Jackson, who finished with her seventh straight game scoring at least 20 points.

“It’s just fun being efficient for my teammates and just me being aggressive down low,” Jackson said afterward. “My teammates kept getting me the ball in my spots, so I just tried to convert for them.”

Paint presence

On Sunday, the Volunteers scored 50 points in the paint to defeat the Wildcats by 20.

Though the Wildcats limited Tennessee to 38 Friday, Kentucky’s lack of post presence again made it far too difficult to overcome the Lady Vols’ inside intensity.

This was only exacerbated during a key moment in the fourth quarter. As Tennessee held tight to a 55-51 lead with 7:49 remaining, Kentucky’s Ajae Petty, who had been playing one of her most well-rounded games of the season with 11 points, five rebounds, two steals and an assist, was disqualified for grabbing the ponytail of Tennessee’s Karoline Striplin. The officials ruled the contact intentional, and Petty’s game was done.

UK also dealt with foul trouble for several of its starters. Adebola Adeyeye, who finished with only two points, fouled out with 3:14 remaining in the game. That left Green as the Wildcats’ sole veteran post option, given UK lost forward Nyah Leveretter to a torn ACL last week.

Against Tennessee in last year’s SEC Tournament, it was Robyn Benton’s shooting that made the difference in the Wildcats’ victory. Benton bounced back from Thursday’s scoreless outing against Alabama to lead Kentucky with 20 on Friday. Her three-pointer with 37 seconds to go trimmed the Vols’ lead to 75-71.

“We came really close,” Benton said. “In my mind, I’m pretty sure everybody else’s mind, we were thinking ‘win.’ We weren’t thinking, ‘let’s hang on,’ we were thinking, ‘let’s win this game.’”

But Scherr fouled out soon after, and, UK’s chances dwindled as Tennessee closed out the win at the foul line.

Scherr finished her first season at Kentucky after transferring from Oregon with 13 points, five assists, four steals and three blocks against the Vols. Walker, who scored a career-high 24 Thursday night, finished Friday’s game with 12 points, four steals and four blocks.

“As far as this team,” Elzy said. “Mental toughness, we are going to work on that all summer long, along with reading the defense and scoring, and we’re going to lay our hat on the defensive end so nothing changes there. We’ve just got to continue to get better.”

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

No. 1 South Carolina 93, No. 8 Arkansas 66

No. 4 Ole Miss 77, No. 13 Texas A&M 60

No. 2 LSU 83, No. 7 Georgia 66

No. 3 Tennessee 80, No. 14 Kentucky 71

Saturday

4:30 p.m.: No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 4 Ole Miss (ESPNU)

7 p.m.: No. 2 LSU vs. No. 3 Tennessee (ESPNU)

Sunday

3 p.m.: Championship game (ESPN)

This story was originally published March 4, 2023 at 12:18 AM.