GREENVILLE, S.C. — The SEC Tournament kicked off in Greenville, South Carolina, Wednesday with a slate of do-or-die single elimination games meant to establish prowess and power early. Kentucky met Arkansas, Florida ran up against Mississippi State, Texas A&M tangoed with Auburn and Missouri took on Alabama.
While most of the day’s games were blowout wins from the beginning, the third match between the Tigers and the Aggies had fans on the edge of their seats until the last five seconds, when an airball from Janae Kent gave the game up.
As always, four teams are out and four will advance to Thursday, when they’ll have to do it all over again.
Kentucky found redemption over Arkansas
If the Kentucky Wildcats were still upset about their 60-56 loss to South Carolina on March 1, they channeled that energy right into their first tournament match against the Arkansas Razorbacks.
The third quarter was crucial for the Wildcats, Coach Kenny Brooks told reporters after the game. Though his team dominated the first half and easily guarded the Razorbacks as they navigated the team’s dribble drive, they were tired during the second and both Teonni Key and Asia Boone ran into foul trouble.
That meant the team had to rally after the half, and they rose to the challenge.
Kentucky ended the game with six players scoring in the double digits, a redemptive arc if ever there was one. That included Clara Strack with 20 points, Amelia Hassett with 18, Tonie Morgan with 14 points and 10 assists, Jordan Obi with 14 points and 10 rebounds, Teonni Key with 12 points and Asia Boone with 10.
The Wildcats will return to the court tomorrow and face the Georgia Bulldogs for a game that has the potential to become emotionally eruptive. “We know who we play, and we understand it, and we know the difficulties of being able to play,” Brooks, who has taken issue with the back-to-back games required of the first round of players, also told reporters. “We’re going to go in and Katie [Abrahamson-Henderson] does a tremendous job with her group. They’ve had a phenomenal year with the additions that they had and putting everyone together.”
He continued: “We had to play them. We had to play them, and it was a very difficult situation last time. We were pretty much less than 48 hours off of an emotional loss at Tennessee, came back, had to play that game. We were not full strength, and I’m sure they weren’t.”
The Wildcats lost 72-67 when they met the Bulldogs Jan. 24.
Florida’s sophomore duo showed out against Mississippi State
The Florida Gators never fell behind Mississippi State Wednesday afternoon, and ended the game with a powerful 86-68 win over the Bulldogs. Florida’s game was one of runs, as the team scored eight of their first 10 points thanks to the work of four different players during the first quarter and held a lead by as much as 12 points without yielding the glass.
The Bulldogs put on a fight at the beginning of the second, but Florida landed five baskets with a rapidity that necessitated a timeout with nearly eight minutes left on the clock. Mississippi State again hit a basket out of the huddle, which was answered with six fron the Gators.
The third saw Florida lead by as much as 26 points, something Mississippi State never fully recovered from. The Bulldogs outscored the Gators 22-14 in the fourth, but Florida’s lead never dipped below 17 points.
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While speaking to reporters after the game, Coach Kelly Rae Finely pointed to Me’Arah O’Neal and Liv McGill as “the most productive sophmore duo in the country” and reminded everyone the pair are “only just getting started.”
“They’re really dynamic in pick-and-roll offense,” she added. “Their understanding and their IQ of the game and just how they prepare and their relationship together really sets them apart.” In other words, the SEC is on notice: these two will be players to watch for at least a couple of seasons.
Florida, Finely added, “is an NCAA tournament team. We don’t beg and ask for much in our program. We earn everything that we get.”
The Gators will play Thursday’s second game of the day against Oklahoma, a team they lost 81-74 to on Feb. 12.
Auburn eked out a nail-biter win over Texas A&M
Auburn’s narrow 50-49 win over Texas A&M proved to be the first true challenge of the day, with the Tigers’ victory coming down to an airball from Janae Kent in the final five seconds of the game.
The Aggies may not have locked in the win, but it wasn’t because they didn’t put their hearts into it. Senior Ny’Ceara Pryor ended the night with 25 points — a career high — and put on a masterclass in leadership under any and every circumstance. As Coach Joni Taylor told reporters following the game, Pryor is “incredible from a basketball standpoint. What you see is what you get from her — every single night, the game plan is to take Ny away or to stop Ny.”
Taylor also insisted the Aggies will regroup as they have time and time again, a plan that could include an appearance in the NCAA Tournament, or the WBIT at the end of March. She had no further updates on the status of junior Fatama Janneh, who left the game at the end of the second quarter after suffering a knee injury.
Though the game was a true back-and-forth battle, the end result belonged to the Tigers. Coach Larry Vickers in his first season as head coach at Auburn, and emphasized the win serves two ends. The Tigers will advance in the tournament (they will play Ole Miss on Thursday), and it offers potential recruits a glimpse into what the program is all about.
“This was one that, for us, showed us, ‘Hey, we can play with anybody and we can beat anybody,'” he said after the game. Vickers, who admitted he’d received many a preparatory talk from fellow SEC coaches Yolett McPhee-McCuin, Kenny Brooks, and Dawn Staley, emphasized the raw athleticism of the SEC.
To prepare for a win like Wednesday night’s, the team intentionally pursued a difficult pre-conference schedule that included matches against Oregon and Syracuse. That effort continues to pay off for the No. 15 Tigers.
Alabama’s three-point shooting crushed Missouri
Missouri came close to overtaking Alabama a handful of times throughout all four quarters of the final match of the day, but they ultimately proved no match for a Crimson Tide’s lethal three-point shooting.
The highlight of the game was a particularly potent three-point tear freshman Ace Austin went on during the fourth, hitting four three-pointers after going scoreless for the first three quarters of the game. The shots allowed Alabama to pull away from a momentarily tied up match — exactly what the kind of basketball that needs to be played in this moment.
Alabama’s entire game was about pacing and energy, and both were high and fast. The team’s defense held Missouri — a team that typically averages 73 points a game — to just 48, as the offense consistently found new and more powerful ways to score.
Alabama will next face the Tennessee Lady Vols, who were in attendance in full and watching the game closely. Tennessee walked away with a 70-59 win the last time the two teams met in January, but if Austin starts shooting like she did Wednesday, the game could go either way.
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