On Friday, Kentucky Women’s Basketball played its first NCAA Tournament game since 2022. After Kenny Brooks entered as head coach this season and turned the program on its head, the ‘Cats earned their first win in the tourney in three years. While no win during March is a given, Kentucky dominated the Flames for almost all 40 minutes of play to come out of the first round with a victory. Despite a victory, it definitely wasn’t pretty. The ‘Cats came out on top, 79-78, after a nightmare of a fourth quarter.
Georgia Amoore opened up scoring with eight straight points for Kentucky, while the Flames trailed closely behind. Thankfully, the ‘Cats (just Amoore and Dazia Lawrence) found the gap to extend their lead to five early in the first quarter. Amoore actually ended up with double digits at the two and a half minute mark of the first quarter. Liberty’s first mistake was letting the All-American get hot. After one, the ‘Cats finished with a nine-point lead over the Flames.
While the second quarter was off to a slower start, that didn’t stop the ‘Cats from extending their lead. When the first half finished, Amoore had only missed one of six threes, and the team as a whole had hit seven. No other Wildcat had reached double digits yet, but that would soon change.
To open the third quarter, the ‘Cats went on an 11-5 run to force Liberty into an early timeout. At that point, Kentucky led by 16, the largest lead of the day so far. Finally, Lawrence and Clara Strack had surpassed 10 points, and weren’t slowing down. The ‘Cats were red hot, and there wasn’t anything the Liberty Flames could do about it. After three, Kentucky was up 14 points with only 10 minutes left to play.
During the fourth, Strack marked her fifteenth double-double of the season after a dime from Amoore. After that, however, the ‘Cats went over four minutes without making a single basket. The drought allowed Liberty to make a comeback and put the score within four points. Dazia Lawrence ended the drought, but Liberty was still on the Wildcats’ tails. Both Strack and Teonni Key fouled out, and finished with 15 points and six points, respectively. With a minute to go, it was a one point game, and Coach Brooks called a timeout.
With 16 seconds to go, the Flames fouled Georgia Amoore to give Kentucky the ball with no shot clock. Liberty fouled again, Kentucky called a timeout, and there were only 12 seconds remaining. Amoore made both of her free throws to give the ‘Cats a three point lead with 10.9 seconds on the clock. Thankfully, Clara Silva played some aggressive defense and the Flames turned the ball over. Amoore made one more free throw to tie the Women’s NCAA Tournament record for scoring, which was originally set by Kentucky alum A’dia Mathies, with 34 points.
Just when the game looked to be over, Liberty’s Emma Hess banked a three pointer to make it a one point game with less than two seconds on the clock. Thankfully, the clock ran out, and Kentucky came out with a 79-78 win over the Liberty Flames to move on to the Round of 32. The ‘Cats will play the winner of No. 5 Kansas State and No. 12 Fairfield on Sunday, March 23 at Memorial Coliseum.
