Big Blue Preview: No. 16/18 Kentucky Women’s Basketball Plays Host to No. 3/3 South Carolina on Sunday for Senior Day, Regular-Season Home Finale
LEXINGTON, Ky. – The No. 16/18 University of Kentucky women’s basketball program (21-8, 8-7 Southeastern Conference) will play host to No. 3/3 South Carolina (28-2, 14-1 SEC) in Historic Memorial Coliseum on Sunday, March 1 at 2 p.m. ET.
Doors will open 75 minutes before tip at 12:45 p.m. ET, with a Senior Day poster giveaway at all entrances, while supplies last. The rest of the gameday timeline is as follows:
12:45 p.m. ET – Doors open
1:21 p.m. ET – Senior student managers / senior student support staff ceremony
1:39 p.m. ET – Senior Day ceremony
1:46 p.m. ET – The singing of My Old Kentucky Home
1:54 p.m. ET – Clara Strack school record in blocks ball presentation
1:55 p.m. ET – National anthem (Marlana VanHoose)
1:58 p.m. ET – Starting lineup introduction
2:02 p.m. ET – Tip off
Halftime – Red Panda performance
Tickets to the game are sold out, however fans still interested in attending can purchase a ticket via Ticketmaster Verified Resale.
Fans with tickets who can no longer attend can transfer their tickets to friends or family or post their tickets for resale through their UK Athletics Account. For more information how to transfer your tickets or post them for resale, visit UKathletics.com/MobileTickets.
Big Blue Nation is encouraged to wear the colors corresponding with their seats. Fans on the West Side of the arena are encouraged to wear white, while fans on the East Side of the arena are encouraged to wear blue.
Darren Headrick will have the Kentucky-South Carolina radio call for UK Sports Network on 630 AM WLAP in Lexington and on 790 AM WKRD in Louisville. It also will be carried on SiriusXM channel 84 and on the SiriusXM App.
Big Blue Nation also can watch the game on SEC Network+, with Noah Frary and Christi Thomas on the call.
UK Athletics recommends eight parking locations for fans attending games this season, including two parking locations with shuttle transportation (The Cornerstone Garage, High Street Lot). The shuttle at those parking locations starts 90 minutes prior to tip-off and breaks at the end of the first quarter. It resumes at the start of the third quarter and runs one hour postgame.
When Kentucky and South Carolina meet on Sunday, UK will become the first Division I women’s team since at least 2001-02 to play five regular-season conference games against opponents ranked in the AP Top Five. UK just so happened to hit the league’s best teams while they were ranked top five, including No. 5 LSU, No. 5 Oklahoma, No. 4 Texas, No. 5 Vanderbilt and No. 3 South Carolina.
Sunday’s regular-season home finale is the 78th all-time meeting between the two teams.
Kentucky trails the series with South Carolina, 42-35, which began in 1979, while UK leads USC in games played in Lexington, 20-14.
The last time the Wildcats defeated the Gamecocks was in the SEC Tournament Championship Game on March 6, 2022, 103-55, en route to knocking off the one, two and three seeds to be crowned champions. The last time the Cats defeated the Cocks in Lexington was March 1, 2015 (67- 56).
In last season’s appointment, Clara Strack had a team-high 23 points, team-high eight rebounds, team-high four assists, a team-high-tying two blocks and a team-high-tying one steal in a loss, 78-66, to close out the regular season at South Carolina.
She became the first player – from any team – to have at least 23 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two blocks and a steal against South Carolina since UConn’s Gabby Williams on Feb. 13, 2017. She also became the only player – from any team – to do this in Columbia since at least 2002-03. She also became the first NCAA DI women’s player to have at least 23 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two blocks and one steal in a regular-season true road game against an AP Top 10 opponent since Caitlin Clark did so at No. 2 Ohio State on Jan. 23, 2023.
In that game, she scored 19 of her 23 points in the second half, and in the fourth quarter, she twice put up the bucket that got Kentucky within one point of South Carolina in a sellout, loud arena. With Strack leading the charge, UK became the first SEC team to trail USC by just one point in the fourth quarter in Columbia since 2020.
For more information on the Kentucky women’s basketball team, visit UKathletics.com or follow @KentuckyWBB on X, Instagram, and Facebook.
