Sometimes Goliath does beat David.The Kentucky women’s basketball task Sunday was monumental. Playing in the Southeastern Conference championship for only the second time in school history and first since 1982, UK had the weight of the Bluegrass State on its shoulders.Win and the Cats pull off history. Win and suddenly a two or three seed is in the discussion for the NCAA Tournament. In their way stood No. 4 and one-seeded Tennessee, the longtime powerhouse of women’s college basketball. Just a week and a half ago, the Lady Volunteers, as most would expect, blew the doors off of little-known Kentucky in Knoxville, Tenn., 81-65.Now in the second go-around in the unlikeliest of places, if you pay attention to preseason polls, the once-overlooked Cats actually had a chance to pull off the ultimate underdog special. Pat Summitt’s team, as it’s so often done over the years, ripped the fairytale ending to shreds with superior talent, defeating the UK Hoops team 70-62 in Duluth, Ga.. It was the Lady Volunteers’ 14th SEC Tournament title.But UK, its players and its coaches shouldn’t feel an inkling of shame after this loss. In one of the gutsiest performances of the year, the Cats went toe-to-toe with a Final Four favorite and nearly pulled off the unthinkable. It took a 13-3 run late in the second half to finally bury UK’s bid for an upset.”We came here to win and came up a little short today,” head coach Matthew Mitchell said. “But I thought our players battled against a really fine basketball team today, and I thought we found out a lot about our team. One thing I do know is they wanted to win today, and it certainly showed out there on the court. They played awfully hard.”Physically, UK looked like the team picked to finish 11th in the preseason by the coaches and the media when the players in the blue and white stood next to the orange giants. The Cats stood in the shadows at nearly every position on the floor, especially when matched up against 6-foot-6 Kelley Cain on the block.The decisive height advantage showed on the boards as well, as UT pounded UK on the glass 51-32 for 13 second-chance points.”It was pretty physical out there,” junior forward Victoria Dunlap said. “That’s the kind of team that’s going to come in there and go hard to the boards. I think mentally we weren’t ready to really box them out. They got in there, got a couple of boards in the first half and just mentally, as a team, we weren’t able to box them out, push them back, so they got a lot of rebounds.”And yet with 11 minutes to go in the game, the Cats held a 48-46 advantage and had Tennessee so flustered that Summitt’s head was spinning. It was once again the Cats’ relentless defensive pressure that led the way. UK forced 20 turnovers on the game for 16 points. Twice, when UT appeared to be running away with things – a 10-point deficit in the first half and a six-point disadvantage to start the second half – UK turned up the full-court pressure and retook the lead.    “I thought Kentucky did an excellent job of just putting the pressure on us,” Tennessee guard Angie Bjorklund said. “They really came out trapping and were just very aggressive. I give them a lot of credit because they didn’t give up the whole game. They fought all the way until the end. That’s the sign of a great team.”Tennessee regained the lead for good at 52-50 on an Alyssia Brewer layup and never looked back. It ended the Cats’ hopes of an SEC title, but did nothing to damage their championship spirits. “I’m really encouraged with what the team is doing right now,” Mitchell said. “We have a long way to go this year. The season’s not over but the SEC portion is. It is time to look back. They performed well. We just need to stick to our core principles: hard work and honesty. These kids hear this every day. I think if we do that, we have a great chance to be successful.”The Kentucky players can truly hold their heads high when they think of how far they’ve come since last year. At this point last season, UK was sweating it out at home in hopes of making the Women’s National Invitation Tournament. Now they’re postseason lives have gotten considerably more prestigious. Dunlap said the transformation started with an attitude adjustment.”I think compared to last year and the year before that, the team chemistry wasn’t really there,” Dunlap said. “We had a lot of individuals doing their own thing. This year people were willing to put in the time, put in the work, listen to the coaches, be willing to play defense and get all the fundamentals right and not worry about what they’re doing personally. Just as a team we got together.”Dunlap once again led the way for the Cats with 21 points, six rebounds and three blocks. She put Cain into foul trouble early on and sent her to the bench, and her “and one” late in the first half capped a 16-4 run that gave UK the lead and the momentum.Dunlap, standing at just 6-foot-1, showed the type of resolve and courage against one of the nation’s tallest team that won her SEC Player of the Year.”That kid doesn’t just play with talent,” assistant coach Kyra Elzy said. “She’s got a heart the size of Kentucky.”As does the rest of this UK Hoops team. Even if they can’t walk away with a championship trophy, the Cats can take consolation in the fact that they’re not only pointing in the right direction, but that they’ve already gotten there. In just a year’s time, Mitchell has broken the chains of mediocrity on this UK women’s basketball program and placed it into the field of 64.”We played some very good basketball in this tournament,” Mitchell said. “We played very tough. We had kids play a lot of minutes. I just thought they performed at a real high level for three straight days in what I think is one of the toughest tournaments in the country. There’s no question from my perspective right now, there’s plenty that we can build on. I think we’ll be a very difficult team to play against in the NCAA Tournament.”The Cats will have to wait another week to find out what seed they’ve earned and where they’ll play, but the key is that they have earned the opportunity to play in the Big Dance for the first time since 2006.When one considers how unlikely that was in the preseason, David did beat Goliath after all.