Kentucky women barely escape 13-seed Liberty thanks to Amoore’s record-tying performance
Kenny Brooks and the fourth-seeded Kentucky Wildcats advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a 79-78 thriller over the 13th-seeded Liberty Flames in Memorial Coliseum on Friday. UK advances to the round of 32 for the first time since 2021 and will face the winner of No. 5 seed Kansas State and No. 12 Fairfield.
Kentucky was seemingly in command of the game, leading 72-57 after a Clara Strack layup with 6:55 to play, but Liberty assembled an 11-0 run to close the gap to 72-68 with 2:26 left. A raucous but nervous Memorial Coliseum crowd, watched UK’s lead dwindle to 76-75 with 46 seconds to go before the Cats (23-7) finally put things to rest at the foul line.
Georgia Amoore led Kentucky to victory by tying the school record for points in an NCAA Tournament game with 34. A’dia Mathies had held that record alone since 2013.
For nearly the first half of the first period, only Amoore, named a second-team All-American this week, had scored for the Wildcats. Amoore posted UK’s first eight points before she was joined on the stats sheet by fellow graduate guard Dazia Lawrence, who followed up Amoore’s eight points with six consecutive points of her own. The experienced backcourt duo pushed the Wildcats out to an early lead, and continued to shoulder the entirety of UK’s offensive production until junior forward Teonni Key broke through with a clutch layup with 84 seconds to play in the quarter to give Kentucky its first double-digit lead of the afternoon.
SEC Defensive Player of the Year and All-SEC second-team selection Clara Strack, who averaged a near-double-double through Kentucky’s first 29 contests, scored her first points early in the second quarter. The game pit Strack against redshirt-senior center Bella Smuda, the Flames’ 6-foot-6 leading scorer and one of just three Liberty players remaining from the Flames’ 19-point victory over Virginia Tech in 2021 — the last time Brooks and Carey Green coached against each other. Friday’s UK victory moved the all-time series between the coaches to 11-3 in Brooks’ favor.
The Wildcats shot an efficient 57.1% (16-of-28) from the field in the first half, tying their mark for most points scored at the half this season. Amoore led the way with 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including 5-of-6from 3-point range. Kentucky held the Flames to 40.6% (13-of-32) shootingin the first 20 minutes, but 10 first-half points — including six in the second period — from freshman reserve center Emmy Stout and nine second-quarter points from starting senior guard Emma Hess kept Liberty in the hunt.
A 3-point buzzer-beater from Lawrence returned UK to a double-digit lead, 44-34, at the half, and brought Big Blue Nation to its feet.
Halftime was bookended by a pair of 3-pointers from Lawrence, and the Wildcats’ lead swelled from 10 to 16 — their largest of the game at that point — in the first three minutes of the third quarter, forcing Green to burn a timeout in hopes of halting UK’s momentum. Sure enough, the Wildcats — though they won the period — struggled offensively in comparison to the first half; UK shot a game-low 31.8% (7-of-22) during the third quarter, and made just 2 of its final 11 field goal attempts, but entered the final quarter of play ahead 64-50.
Junior forward Amelia Hassett, the only Kentucky starter to not score during the first three periods, hit a pair of 3-pointers early in the final quarter, but UK’s third-quarter lull continued into the final period, as the Flames capitalized on a Kentucky scoring drought and all-too-familiar foul trouble to assemble its 11-0 scoring run over the course of more than four minutes. Key fouled out with 3:16 left and Strack replaced her with four fouls of her own before fouling out at the 2:26 mark.
“They definitely turned up the intensity and the pressure,” Amoore said. “But I think our biggest thing is we just can’t get stagnant. We have to keep moving. We have to keep creating for each other and just be confident, like move to want to shoot, move to want to be open. Just, I don’t think we had the mindset like we did in the first half.”
After a pair of made free throws from Stout made it a two-possession game, Lawrence ended Kentucky’s drought with a necessary jumper — one that bounced around the rim before ultimately falling, much to the relief of Big Blue Nation. On the other end, however, Stout was fouled by Hassett, and sank two more free throws. The Wildcats turned it over on the following possession, and Stout dished it to freshman guard Avery Mills for a big-time 3-pointer to pull the game within one point.
Following four consecutive Liberty field goals, Amoore drove to the hoop for a layup — but Liberty’s Elisabeth Aegisdottir answered with a bucket to maintain the single-point deficit. Thanks to a key offensive rebound by Hassett after a missed jumper, the Wildcats retained possession and forced Liberty to foul with under 11 seconds to play, which sent Amoore to the line. Amoore made both attempts, giving UK a three-point lead.
Freshman center Clara Silva forced a Smuda travel, and Liberty turnover, with 8.2 seconds to play, and Amoore was fouled again, but made just one of her attempts from the line. Out of a Liberty timeout, Hess drained a 30-footer to pull within one point yet again, but time was on Kentucky’s side, and the clock ran out with the ball in Amoore’s hands.
“It’s got to be next play mentality,” Brooks said. “And obviously momentum was not in our favor. So I had to figure out what we wanted to do, how we wanted to do it, and, you know, it’s thin. Obviously, our bench is thin right now. But I thought Clara Silva came in and did an OK job toward the end for us, you know, they all have to be better, but we need Teonni, and we need Clara (Strack) on the floor.”
Lawrence finished with 16 points, two rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Strack added 15 points, 10 rebounds, one assist, two blocks and two steals.
Stout led the Flames with 20 points. Hess and Smuda each scored 14. Senior Guard Jordan Hodges added 13.
Sunday
Kentucky vs. Kansas State
When: 2 p.m.
Where: Memorial Coliseum
TV: ESPN
Records: Kentucky 23-7, Kansas State 27-7
Series: Kentucky leads 1-0
Last meeting: Kentucky beat Kansas State 60-49 on Dec. 3, 2020, at Manhattan, Kansas
This story was originally published March 21, 2025 at 2:23 PM.
