Kentucky women’s basketball lets big lead slip away, falls to Oklahoma in SEC tourney
Kenny Brooks and the Kentucky Wildcats could not complete a season sweep of Oklahoma, falling 69-65 to the Sooners in the SEC Women’s Basketball Tournament quarterfinals on Friday afternoon.
“It’s not like we got upset, (or) we lost to a bad team,” Brooks said after his fourth-seeded Cats fell to the fifth-seeded Sooners. “Oklahoma has won nine in a row, ranked 10th in the country. (OU coach) Jennie (Baranczyk) does a really good job. They’re a championship culture. They won two Big 12 championships in a row pretty much with that core of kids. They know how to win basketball games.”
Fans hoping for a more competitive matchup than the Wildcats’ regular-season rout of OU were granted a back-and-forth first quarter. Kentucky worked out to a lead of as many as five in the first 10 minutes, and finished the quarter with a single-point edge while holding the Sooners to 19 points. UK’s early offense was powered by eight points, one rebound, four assists and one steal from All-America point guard Georgia Amoore.
“She’s something special, Georgia,” said a courtside South Carolina fan after a clutch jump shot in transition from Amoore with just under 90 seconds to play to give Kentucky its largest lead of the quarter.
Kentucky’s shooting percentage dropped more than 10% in the second period, and the team suffered a scoring drought of more than 3 1/2 minutes en route to putting up a meager 12 points. Fortunately for the Wildcats — who also committed six turnovers during the period — Oklahoma didn’t fare much better, and scored just eight points to trail Kentucky by five at halftime.
Friday’s matchup also meant a rematch between two of the SEC’s — and two of the nation’s — best centers, 2025 SEC Defensive Player of the Year Clara Strack and All-SEC First Teamer Raegan Beers. In the Wildcats’ 95-86 defeat of the Sooners on Feb. 2, Strack recorded 19 points, six rebounds, one assist, two steals and two blocks, while Beers finished with 18 points, 10 rebounds, three assists and one steal. The rematch meant another high-profile battle in the paint and, of course, another physical game.
“Man, Clara Strack is phenomenal,” Beers said. “Obviously, she’s a great defender. Long, lengthy, really hard. Moves really, really well, has a beautiful shot on the outside. So, a great, great person to go up against. And I love going up against great players like that because it just makes me better. And so it was a great test for us today as a team. I feel like, defensively, we guarded her for the most part really well. ... When we play team defense like that against good players like her and against Georgia, we come out on top, which we ended up doing today.”
The Wildcats’ lead reached double digits just under four minutes into the second half, the 10-point advantage courtesy of eight consecutive points. However, the Sooners responded with their own eight-point run while drawing multiple fouls on freshman center Clara Silva, and one apiece for Amoore — her first — and Strack — her second. The programs’ first matchup this season included four Kentucky players fouling out; through three quarters on Friday, Silva had committed four personal fouls, while freshman Lexi Blue, junior forward Teonni Key and Strack had each committed two.
The Sooners (25-6) received some help with fewer than two minutes to play in the form of back-to-back 3-pointers from Payton Verhulst; they were Oklahoma’s second- and third-consecutive field goals, and prompted the fourth lead change of the contest. Despite a 3-pointer from Amoore to close the third quarter, Oklahoma entered the final 10 minutes of play with a one-point lead.
The fourth quarter did not dip in its intensity, and featured just 10 combined points in the first five minutes. During that time, Oklahoma put together six straight points to take its largest lead of the contest (three points). With three minutes and 18 seconds to play, the game had featured eight separate lead changes as the Wildcats trailed by a single possession after fourth-quarter scoring efforts from Amoore, Strack, graduate guard Dazia Lawrence and junior forward Amelia Hassett.
The Sooners largely kept the Wildcats at bay, forcing five of Kentucky’s 20 total turnovers in the fourth quarter while increasing its lead to as many as seven to advance to an SEC Tournament semifinal matchup against top-seeded South Carolina on Saturday.
“I just don’t think we were aggressive enough,” Amoore said. “I don’t think we placed emphasis on the possessions we had. We knew they were creeping back and scoring. We were probably a step behind more often than not. Down the stretch, I would have liked to have seen a bit more passion.”
Amoore led all scorers with 29 points, and added five rebounds, seven assists and one steal. Strack finished with 12 points, 16 rebounds and two steals. Lawrence added 11 points, three rebounds, one block and one steal. Key, Strack and Silva each committed four fouls.
Beers led the Sooners with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Verhulst finished with 16 points. Sahara Williams added 13 points.
The Wildcats (22-7) will now wait for their NCAA Tournament draw, revealed on Selection Sunday, March 16.
SEC Tournament
At Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina. All times approximate and Eastern:
WEDNESDAY
Game 1: No. 9 seed Tennessee 77, No. 16 seed Texas A&M 37
Game 2: No. 12 Georgia 79, No. 13 Arkansas 74
Game 3: No. 10 Mississippi State 75, No. 15 Missouri 55
Game 4: No. 11 Florida 60, No. 14 Auburn 50
THURSDAY
Game 5: No. 8 Vanderbilt 84, No. 9 Tennessee 76
Game 6: No. 5 Oklahoma 70, No. 12 Georgia 52
Game 7: No. 7 Ole Miss 85, No. 10 Mississippi State 73
Game 8: No. 11 Florida 63, No. 6 Alabama 61
FRIDAY
Game 9: No. 1 South Carolina 84, No. 8 Vanderbilt 63
Game 10: No. 5 Oklahoma 69, No. 4 Kentucky 65
Game 11: No. 2 Texas vs. No. 7 Ole Miss, 6 p.m. (SEC)
Game 12: No. 3 LSU vs. No. 11 Florida, 8:30 p.m. (SEC)
SATURDAY
Game 13: No. 1 South Carolina vs. No. 5 Oklahoma, 4:30 p.m. (ESPN2)
Game 14: Game 11 winner vs. Game 12 winner, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
SUNDAY
Championship game: Game 13 winner vs. Game 14 winner, 3 p.m. (ESPN)
This story was originally published March 7, 2025 at 4:38 PM.
