At the buzzer: Kentucky womens basketball defeats Florida 72-57 in first round of SEC Tournament

By Samantha Money sports@kykernel.com

No. 14 Kentucky womens basketball took down No. 11 Florida 72-57 in the first round of the SEC Tournament in Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina.

The Wildcats ended their regular season this past Sunday with an 83-63 loss to Tennessee to finish conference play 2-14 with a 10-18 overall record.

The loss to Tennessee marked Kentucky’s seventh consecutive loss while the team traveled to South Carolina in hopes of starting the SEC Tournament off on a better foot.

As the reigning SEC Tournament champions, the Cats may have taken the court in Greenville with the lowest seed this year, but did so with the confidence of having taken the 81-75 victory over the Gators back in January.

The Cats got to work right off the bat as Senior Robyn Benton notched Kentucky’s first bucket of the day, quickly followed by a 3-pointer by Blair Green.

However, leading-scorer Maddie Scherr walked back to the locker room early on after seeming to suffer from a fall on the court.

The Wildcats would then regroup to go on a 7-0 scoring run over the Gators to put them up by six points at the end of the first quarter.

Sophomore Jada Walker ade her presence known after picking up two steals during the scoring run for the Cats and contributing to Florida’s two-minute scoring drought.

The second quarter saw quite an interesting turn of events in Greenville, as a scuffle breaking out on the court resulted in three Gators and four Wildcats getting ejected from the game.

Fortunately for the Cats, Benton was able to stay in the game with an intentional foul and Ajae

Petty with a technical foul. Continuing with the game, Scherr stepped back on the court with a couple minutes left in the second quarter to help put the Cats up 22-21 to finish the first half. Hoping for much less chaos in the second half, Kentucky started off the third quarter with a 6-0 scoring run led by Scherr while Walker took a hard fall at the 5:28 mark that sent her to the bench, but only for a few short minutes. Despite Kentucky’s offensive efforts, the Gators trailed close behind to keep the Cats on their toes.

The third quarter proved high-scoring for both sides as Kentucky put up 21 points, eight of which coming from Scherr, and the Gators staying right there with the Cats with 20 points.

Going into the fourth and final quarter, Kentucky led 43-41.

Giving the Cats confidence was a notched 3-pointer by Benton along with two free throws to put the Cats up by four points, but Florida could not be put down as the Gators consistently stayed within a one or two basket range of Kentucky.

With five minutes left to play, Kentucky went on to hold a six point lead over Florida with crucial field goals from Green and Benton. Now on an 8-0 scoring run, the Cats led the Gators by 12 points with just over a minute left to secure the first round victory. With the win, Kentucky will advance to take on No. 6 Alabama on Thursday, March 2, in Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville. The game is scheduled to start tentatively around 8:30 p.m. EST or 25 minutes after the conclusion of game 5 at 6 p.m. EST.