Kentucky goes one and done in the SEC Tournament

UK Athletics

LEXINGTON, Ky. (ABC36 NEWS NOW)- Kenny Brooks’ first season in the SEC is at a close with Kentucky women’s basketball’s 69-62 loss to Oklahoma in the conference tournament quarterfinals on Friday.

UK falls to 22-7 with the loss and will look towards Selection Sunday on March 16, when the Wildcats will find out their seeding and placement in the NCAA Tournament.

“I mean, it’s not like we got upset. Oklahoma has won nine in a row, ranked 10th in the country,” said Brooks. “They know how to win basketball games. We have to finish. We have to finish basketball games.”

How it Happened

Kentucky led the Sooners narrowly at halftime, 31-26, with the Cats going 1/11 from behind the arc and shooting 33% from the field.

Oklahoma wasn’t shooting much better going 2/14 from three-point range and 26% from the field.

Georgia Amoore had 12 points and Clara Strack had 12 rebounds at the half.

Out of the half, OU suffered from a 3:30 minute scoring drought then went on an 8-0 run. UK kept the lead though, 43-39.

Kentucky’s 10 point lead was erased soon after and the Wildcats were outscored 24-18 in the third.

Oklahoma went into the fourth quarter up by one, 50-49, which was the Sooners’ first lead since the first quarter.

In the final ten minutes, Kentucky’s shooters couldn’t keep up with the leading Sooners. The Cats were outscored 17-12 in the final eight minutes and change.

“I just don’t think we were aggressive enough. I don’t think we placed emphasis on the possessions we had. We knew they were creeping back and scoring,” said Amoore. “We were probably a step behind more often than not. Down the stretch, I would have liked to have seen a bit more passion.”

Turnover Tragedy

Oklahoma capitalized off of Kentucky coughing up the basketball several times. The Sooners sank 14 points off of 20 turnovers from the Cats.

Overall, UK turned the ball over on 25% of its possessions. Off of 13 OU turnovers, Kentucky scored 10 points.

Oklahoma stole the ball 11 times from the Cats. UK forced a steal just four times.

“If you look at it, probably 10 or 11 of our turnovers were by our post players. Some of those are the tie-ups. They weren’t turnovers that really hurt us,” said Brooks. “You want to give yourself a chance to shoot the basketball every time you get it. They weren’t live-ball turnovers. They didn’t hurt us that bad. Our post players getting double-teamed, we’re not getting opportunities.”

Foul Play

Amoore accounted for a team-high 29 points with five rebounds and a team-leading seven assists. She put up 27 shots from the field, but only sank 12 of them.

Dazia Lawrence and Clara Strack were the other two Cats in double figure scoring. Strack pulled down a team-high 16 boards too.

As a whole, UK shot poorly from three-point land. 17.4% to be exact.

The Sooners didn’t shoot well either making 22% of their three-point attempts and shot worse than the Cats from the field.

But, Strack, Clara Silva and Teonni Key all had four fouls. The Sooners scored on all but one of their 20 free throw chances.