The SEC’s historic powers couldn’t hold off the new threats in the semifinals of the conference’s women’s basketball tournament on Saturday at Gwinnett Arena.
Instead of Georgia earning a chance to win its fifth SEC tournament championship, Kentucky, which won its only SEC title in 1982, advanced with a 60-38 victory. The Lady Bulldogs were outscored 41-14 in the second half and were held to 22.2-percent shooting overall.
“Basketball’s no fun when you don’t hit shots,” Georgia coach Andy Landers.
In the other semifinal, Texas A&M, in its first season in the conference, knocked off top-seeded Tennessee, winners of 16 SEC tournament championships, 66-62 behind 15 points from Kelsey Bone and 12 points and 12 rebounds from Kristi Bellock.
The Wildcats will play the Aggies at 6 p.m. Sunday. Both teams have been developing into powers. This was Kentucky’s sixth appearance in the semifinals in the past eight SEC tournaments. They finished as runner-up in 2010 and ’11. The Aggies, who won the national championship in 2011, will play in their sixth consecutive conference tournament championship game after leaving the Big 12 last year with championships in 2008 and 2010.
“I just killed your crowd for tomorrow,” Texas A&M coach Gary Blair told SEC commissioner Mike Slive after the game.
While there may not be much orange, there shouldn’t be many fans wearing red and black, either.
Georgia’s issues on offense were staggering:
- The point total matched a season low, and the 14 points in the second half were a season low.
- The Lady Bulldogs missed 17 of their 18 3-point shots.
- They had only two assists and committed 18 turnovers.
“I’m really proud of our team for getting our attitude right at halftime,” Kentucky coach Matthew Mitchell said. He said he got his team re-focused by writing the numbers “12” and “3” on the board, which was how many offensive rebounds Georgia had compared to his Wildcats.
The Lady Bulldogs missed seven of their first nine shots in the second half, and the Wildcats used a 14-2 run to take a 34-26 lead 5:41 into the half.
It was all they would need.
“It started on the offensive end with turnovers, which led to transitions and quick loss of the possession,” Landers said. “All of a sudden you look up in three or four trips, and suddenly we are down. We strayed from where we wanted to be defensively, and we paid for it. From that point on it wasn’t a lot of fun.”
Texas A&M (23-9) had its own trouble shooting until the game’s final minutes.
After falling behind by six early in the second half, Texas A&M’s Tori Scott put the clamps on Taber Spani, who had a career day, and the Aggies took a 60-58 lead on a jumper by Courtney Walker with 2:56 left. Texas A&M rarely missed from that point.
Coming out of a timeout with 53.7 seconds left, Texas A&M’s Courtney Williams got the ball on the wing and made a 15-foot jumper to give her team a 64-62 lead with 35 seconds left.
“We just got comfortable,” Tennessee (24-7) coach Holly Warlick said. “We’ve been preaching defense all year and rebounding. We couldn’t get a stop.”
Kentucky beat Texas A&M in their two previous meetings this season, 65-62 and 70-66.
“I’d like to put in a special plea for the Tennessee fans,” Blair said. “If I’m not mistaken, Kentucky borders Tennessee. Georgia borders Tennessee. You’re not supposed to like somebody you’re bordering. So we’re the new kid on the block. I want to see that Tennessee orange there pull us through, and I hope they’ll stay.”
About the Author
