Kentucky well represented in SEC’s 2025 postseason women’s basketball awards
During his comments following Kentucky’s regular-season finale loss to South Carolina on Sunday, Kenny Brooks made his case to his fellow SEC coaches to consider sophomore star Clara Strack for all-conference honors.
“I’ll say this about Clara Strack,” Brooks said. “I know she’s probably on the fringe of being an all-conference selection, but if somebody doesn’t think she’s one of the best players in this league, they need to really double check. And I know she doesn’t have a big name, and she’s burst onto the scene, but that kid’s played her tail off here the last, all year. All year, anchoring our defense.”
When the Southeastern Conference announced its 2025 women’s basketball awards Tuesday, the league’s coaches agreed with Brooks and bestowed Strack the honor of Defensive Player of the Year. She was also named to the all-conference Second Team and the All-Defensive Team.
The top-10 finalist for the Lisa Leslie Center of the Year Award closed out the regular season on a high, recording the best individual statistical game against South Carolina — 23 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two blocks and one steal — since Olympian Gabby Williams (Connecticut) in February 2017, and delivering 23 points on a perfect 11-of-11 shooting, plus a career-high 15 rebounds along with two assists and three blocks against Tennessee on Senior Night.
Through 28 games, Strack posted 13 double-doubles and averaged 15.3 points, on 48.7% (170-349) shooting, and 9.5 rebounds. She reset Kentucky’s single-season individual blocks record (now 70 and counting), leading the way for a single-season team record for blocked shots (195 and counting). Strack leads the league in blocks per game (2.5), and ranks ninth nationally in the category.
Strack joined LSU’s Aneesah Morrow, South Carolina’s Sania Feagin and Raven Johnson, Tennessee’s Talaysia Cooper and Texas’ Rori Harmon on the All-SEC Defensive Team. The All-SEC Second Team also included Cooper, Auburn’s DeYona Gaston, Ole Miss’ Madison Scott, Mississippi State’s Jerkaila Jordan, Oklahoma’s Payton Verhulst and South Carolina’s MiLaysia Fulwiley and Te-Hina Paopao.
Strack wasn’t the only Wildcat to receive all-conference honors. League coaches named graduate point guard Georgia Amoore Newcomer of the Year, and selected her to the all-conference First Team. Amoore, also recently named a finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year Award, averaged a team-high 18.8 points, and a conference-leading 6.9 assists per game.
At the end of February, Amoore became the third woman in the history of NCAA Division I to record at least 2,300 points and 800 assists in a career, joining WNBA champion, Olympic gold medalist and former Oregon Duck Sabrina Ionescu and the reigning No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft, former Iowa Hawkeye Caitlin Clark.
Per UK Athletics statistician Corey Price, this is the first time since 2018-19 (Rhyne Howard and Maci Morris) that Kentucky has had two players earn All-SEC selections in the same season.
Amoore was joined on the All-SEC First Team by Alabama’s Sarah Ashlee Barker, LSU’s Morrow, Flau’Jae Johnson and Mikaylah Williams, Oklahoma’s Raegan Beers, South Carolina’s Joyce Edwards, Texas’ Madison Booker and Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes.
Blakes was named the league’s Freshman of the Year. Missouri’s Grace Slaughter was named Scholar-Athlete of the Year. Fulwiley received Sixth Woman of the Year honors, and Texas’ Vic Schaefer was awarded SEC Coach of the Year.
The Wildcats’ next game is Friday, in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals, after having earned the fourth and final double-bye following a UK-record-breaking 11-5 record (22-6 overall) in conference play.
2025 SEC women’s basketball awards
FIRST TEAM
Sarah Ashlee Barker (Alabama)
Georgia Amoore (Kentucky)
Flau’Jae Johnson (LSU)
Aneesah Morrow (LSU)
Mikaylah Williams (LSU)
Raegan Beers (Oklahoma)
Joyce Edwards (South Carolina)
Madison Booker (Texas)
Mikayla Blakes (Vanderbilt)
SECOND TEAM
DeYona Gaston (Auburn)
Clara Strack (Kentucky)
Madison Scott (Ole Miss)
Jerkaila Jordan (Mississippi State)
Payton Verhulst (Oklahoma)
MiLaysia Fulwiley (South Carolina)
Te-Hina Paopao (South Carolina)
Talaysia Cooper (Tennessee)
ALL-DEFENSIVE TEAM
Clara Strack (Kentucky)
Aneesah Morrow (LSU)
Sania Feagin (South Carolina)
Raven Johnson (South Carolina)
Talaysia Cooper (Tennessee)
Rori Harmon (Texas)
ALL-FRESHMAN TEAM
Yuting Deng (Auburn)
Liv McGill (Florida)
Trinity Turner (Georgia)
Mia Woolfolk (Georgia)
Sira Thienou (Ole Miss)
Joyce Edwards (South Carolina)
Jordan Lee (Texas)
Mikayla Blakes (Vanderbilt)
Scholar-Athlete of the Year: Grace Slaughter (Missouri)
Player of the Year: Madison Booker (Texas)
Freshman of the Year: Mikayla Blakes (Vanderbilt)
Newcomer of the Year: Georgia Amoore (Kentucky)
Defensive Player of the Year: Clara Strack (Kentucky)
Sixth Woman of the Year: MiLaysia Fulwiley (South Carolina)
Coach of the Year: Vic Schaefer (Texas)
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 11:46 AM.
