Kentucky Begins SEC Tournament vs. Alabama Thursday in Nashville
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Looking to turn a new page after a challenging schedule led to tough results in the regular season, the University of Kentucky women’s basketball team opens up postseason play in the second round of the 2018 Southeastern Conference Tournament on Thursday at 1 p.m. ET against eighth-seeded Alabama at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
Every game of the tournament will be televised nationally with the first three rounds on SEC Network, while the semifinals will be on ESPNU and the championship on ESPN. The Kentucky-Alabama game will be broadcast live on the SEC Network with Courtney Lyle, Tamika Catchings and Steffi Sorensen on the call. The action can also be seen through WatchESPN on computers, smartphones or tablets. Darren Headrick, in his first year with the program, will be calling the game on the UK Sports Radio Network. Fans in Lexington can hear Headrick’s call on 630AM WLAP. Live stats and free audio will be available online at ukathletics.com.
For the first time since 2012, the tournament is being played at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Two first-round games will begin the event Wednesday at Noon ET in 12th-seeded Vanderbilt vs. 13th-seeded Arkansas followed by 11th-seeded Florida vs. 14th-seeded Ole Miss. Four second-round games begin at 1 p.m. ET Thursday before four quarterfinal matchups begin at 1 p.m. ET Friday. Semifinal Saturday will begin at 5 p.m. ET while the championship will be played Sunday at 4:30 p.m. ET.
 |
||
| #9 Kentucky vs. #8 Alabama | ||
|---|---|---|
|
SEC Tournament Second Round |
||
| Coverage | ||
|
TV: SEC Network |
Kentucky, which earned the ninth-seed, is 34-38 all-time in the SEC Tournament and has won at least one game in the event in each of the last eight years. This is the second straight season that Kentucky and Alabama have met in the event with UK winning last season’s battle in the quarterfinals, 65-55. The Wildcats are 5-0 all-time vs. Alabama in the tournament. This is only the second time in Mitchell’s 11-year tenure that UK hasn’t finished top four in the league.
The Wildcats have been paced this season by All-SEC Second Team honoree Maci Morris, who is averaging 17.2 points per game. The native of Pineville, Ky., has scored 20 or more points in six straight games and is the only player in the league to accomplish that honor in SEC action this season. Morris ranks fifth in the nation and second in the league in 3-point field-goal percentage this season at .469. Fellow junior guard Taylor Murray, who was named to the SEC All-Defensive Team, ranks second in scoring at 11.2 points per game and leads UK in steals and assists. Murray ranks top five in the league in assist-turnover ratio, assists, free-throw percentage, minutes played and steals.
Alabama enters the SEC Tournament with a 17-12 overall record. The Crimson Tide finished eighth in the league this season after going 7-9 in league play. Alabama went 10-3 in non-conference play. Since a four-game losing streak in late January and early February, the Crimson Tide have been playing excellent basketball with three straight wins over Ole Miss, then-No. 11 Tennessee and Auburn. Alabama dropped its final two games of the regular season both in overtime to top-25 ranked Georgia and LSU.
As a team, Alabama is averaging 67.7 points per game and hitting 39.6 percent from the field, including 29.6 percent from long range. The Crimson Tide have a +4.2 rebounding margin and +1.4 turnover margin. Senior guard Hannah Cook leads the team by averaging 11.4 points per game this season hitting a team-best 48 3-pointers. Senior forward Ashley Williams is averaging 11.0 points per game and leads the team with 7.0 rebounds per game. Sophomore guard Jordan Lewis has a team-best 87 assists and is earning 9.8 points per game, while Junior guard Shaquera Wade is averaging 6.9 points with 43 steals.
Kentucky leads the all-time series against Alabama 29-17, including a 4-1 mark in neutral-site games. The Wildcats have won five straight games in the series, including seven of the last eight games. Alabama’s last win in the series was a 57-55 victory on Jan. 23, 2014 inside Memorial Coliseum. Matthew Mitchell is 12-2 all-time against Alabama as a head coach.
UK used a 25-5 advantage in the fourth quarter to pull away from Alabama in the team’s only meeting this season and earn a 79-54 victory inside Memorial Coliseum. UK shot 64.7 percent from the field, which was the second best field-goal percentage in a game in program history. UK had a 36-20 advantage in points in the paint and 28-10 advantage in points off turnovers. The Wildcats were paced by 20 points and 10 rebounds from Murray, who went 8-of-11 from the field. Morris scored 16 points and hit two 3s, while KeKe McKinney had 12 points and five rebounds, while Dorie Harrison had 15 points and five rebounds. Alabama shot 39.2 percent from the field and 5-of-18 from long range. Williams paced the Tide with 15 points, going 6-of-6 from the field, while Lewis and Wade each had seven points.
For more information on the Kentucky women’s basketball team, visit UKathletics.com or follow @KentuckyWBB on Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat, or Kentucky Women’s Basketball on Facebook.
Kentucky WBB Pre-SEC Tournament News Conference
Joe Craft Center – Lexington, Ky.
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
Kentucky Head Coach Matthew Mitchell
Opening Statement …
“The SEC Tournament’s always a great event, a real tough tournament to win. Have to play excellent basketball. We have some great teams in the league this year, so ought to be a really tough tournament. Alabama – who is our opponent – has played really good basketball down the stretch. We played them about a month ago and I think they’ve really made progress since then and both of us fighting for postseason right now. So, really tough game and we’ll have to really prepare well to get a victory and that’s what we’ll be intent on doing.”
On how Maci Morris has met the challenge of stepping up this season …
“Well, she’s really worked hard on her offensive game and has become just a total offensive weapon. You know, there’s just not anything at this point in time that she’s not doing extremely well, other than we don’t post her up a lot but the few times we’ve asked her to get in there and do that she’s done that well. That sort of area of her game maybe I think could develop even further, but outside of that she’s just making the 3 at a really high level. She can put it on the floor with both hands and go both ways. Mid-range game. Getting to the bucket, getting to the free throw line. Just a really, really complete offensive threat right now and the thing about it is we’ve had a year that in such a difficult schedule and everybody on that schedule knew that she was our leading scorer and our top offensive threat and she’s still putting up those numbers. So, it’s impressive and I think she’s handled that part of her game about as well as she could. I don’t know what she could’ve done more. She’s really had a great year.”
On whether he thought Maci would have that tenacity when he signed her …
“Yeah, I always thought watching her in high school I liked the intangibles. She always wanted the ball at the end of the game, she was never afraid to take a shot. I saw her miss a couple at the end of games and that never bothered her. She had the makeup of being somebody who wants the ball in her hand. So, I haven’t been surprised. And she’s worked hard at it.”
On how he’s encouraged other players to step up and give Maci support …
“Well, I think we’ve worked hard at individual skill instruction. I think everybody’s made progress. You know, I think you look at our three freshman post players from the beginning of conference play to the end, and they still have a ways to go to develop and get better, but they have made tremendous improvement and you can see where their value lies. Everybody is making sure that we go down to Nashville with a real aggressive mindset, just turning it loose and trying to make sure that in the context of our offensive execution, you’re in the right spot, you’re taking the right shots, you are fulfilling your role on our team. We had a good offensive game versus Alabama the last time where everybody really was in the act and shot the ball very well, so we’ll need another performance like that.”
On how you balance taking the tournament game by game …
“Well, today we’ll just talk about how important it is to beat Alabama. You know, it’s not a secret in this day and age where we stand and what needs to happen. I know the team wants to make a run here at the SEC Tournament and it’s really something that we’ve come close to a bunch of times at Kentucky and it would be just a real great accomplishment, but it’d be awesome for this team. So, everybody understands what needs to happen and you have no shot at it unless you beat Alabama on Thursday. So, you’re right back in the same place you start. You have to go prepare well today and tomorrow and play really good basketball on Thursday.”
On what he’s learned about his team during a challenging year …
“Well, there’s so much opportunity for growth and to learn as a coach. You know, I look back and know a lot more about our team and what’s worked and what was not effective. So, you just file all that away as a coach to make sure. We’ve got so many of these players that are young and have more basketball left to play. So, for this season it’s important that we try to prepare well today and tomorrow and play well on Thursday and then when the season is over that’s when you can really fully reflect and go back and find opportunity for growth. You don’t want to be in this position very often, but we’re in this position and you have to find the value. It’s there. You’ve got to stay really diligent in that process and make sure that you don’t get into negative emotion and really get in and look at it in a real honest and straight-forward way and find the value in it.”
