News:
The Kentucky women?s basketball team received the No. 10 seed and is preparing to square off with seventh-seeded Auburn in Thursday?s first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament. Game time is slated for 3:15 p.m. ET at the Bi-Lo Center in Greenville, S.C. The game will be carried live on FSN South and WLXG Sports Radio 1300 with Chris Cross.
UK (15-14, 4-10 SEC) ended the regular season by snapping a six-game losing streak with a 73-67 win over Arkansas in Memorial Coliseum. UK’s 15 wins are the most since the 1999-00 season and the Cats’ four conference wins are the most since the 2002-03 season.
UK is 16-24 all-time in the SEC tournament and owns one conference championship (1981). The Cats are 9-9 in first round games.
This is the 31st meeting between Kentucky and Auburn. The Tigers own a 21-9 advantage in the all-time series, including a 4-1 lead in the SEC Tournament. UK fell to Auburn 65-50 in the teams? only meeting this season on Feb. 13 in Auburn, Ala.
“We have a tough task ahead of us,? UK Coach Mickie DeMoss said. ?We lost down there earlier in the year and they didn?t have their leading rebounder in Marita Payne. It will be a little different look for us this time. We will have to play extremely well to beat them. We will have our work cut out for us.”
The Cats are looking to snap a six-game losing streak to the Tigers. UK?s last win over Auburn was in Lexington on January 6, 2000. The Cats? lone win over the Tigers in the SEC Tournament came in 1995 in the opening round, 75-51.
Two of UK’s top three scorers are freshmen and Kentucky is the only team in the Southeastern Conference that regularly starts two or more freshmen. Senior Sara Potts leads the way with 13.7 ppg while rookies Sarah Elliott and Samantha Mahoney follow with 10.7 and 10.6 ppg, respectively.
Potts has compiled 1,430 career points and needs only three more to tie Jodie Whitaker at No. 8 on UK?s career scoring list. She also sits at No. 9 on the SEC’s top 10 career list for 3-pt field goals made (253). She needs three more to tie former Tennessee guard Kara Lawson at No. 8 (256).
Elliott is shooting a team-high 56.4 percent from the field (132-234) and is on track to break the school record for highest field goal percentage in a single season by a freshman.
Auburn earned the No. 7 seed after finishing the regular season 15-12 overall, 6-8 in SEC play. The Tigers fell in their regular season finale at Mississippi State, 68-75 in overtime.
Senior Natasha Brackett averages a team-high 18.2 ppg in SEC contests and is averaging 23.3 ppg in her last six games. She leads the Tigers in scoring overall with 17.1 points per game. Payne leads the team with 8.2 rebounds per game. She also leads the nation in blocks with 5.0 a game.
Auburn is 28-21 all-time in the SEC Tournament, including four tournament titles. The last AU title came in 1997 when the Tigers were the No. 9 seed, the only nine seed to win the tournament to date. Nell Fortner is in her first season as the head coach at Auburn.
The winner of Thursday?s game will face No. 2 seed Tennessee Friday at 3:15 ET in the Bi-Lo Center.
