Kentucky Women Stop Florida 94-89 in Exciting Matchup

Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks, Clara Strack and Tonie Morgan discuss UK's win over Florida Thursday night at Historic Memorial Coliseum. (Photo by Jamie H. Vaught)

By Warren Vaught and

Jamie H. Vaught

Notes and observations of No. 7 UK's victory over unranked Florida Thursday night.....

--It was fun to watch a physical battle between 6-foot-5 junior Clara Strack of Kentucky and 6-foot-4 sophomore Me'Arah O'Neal of Florida. Both combined to score 44 points with O'Neal getting a team-high 23 points. Interestingly, it was Strack who fouled out with O'Neal getting no fouls. A McDonald's All-American, O'Neal is a daughter of legendary Shaq O'Neal.

--Senior Tonie Morgan, a transfer from Georgia Tech, is one of the best floor generals in the SEC. She was exceptional against the Gators, scoring a season-high 26 points. The 5-foot-9 guard also had 13 assists. It was her fifth double-double of the season (all on points and assists).

--The Wildcats (17-2 overall, 4-1 SEC) shot 54.8 percent of their field goals. It was UK's best

best field-goal percentage in an SEC home game since January of 2018 when the Cats hit 64.7 percent against Alabama. The Gators also hit well, making 57.1 percent.

--UK second-year boss Kenny Brooks, who had a 23-8 coaching record last season, now has an overall mark of 40-10 while in Lexington. Also, he has the most wins in a head coach's first 50 games in program history.

--Six-foot-5 senior standout Teonni Key didn't play against Florida as she is still recovering from her elbow injury. Playing without Key, Strack had to assume a leadership role for the team. “I think my main focus on here is improving my leadership. I think Toni (Morgan) has done a good job of stepping up too, to have another leader on the court," said Strack. "Teonni’s obviously still there for (us on) the bench, but I think that’s definitely been something I’ve been trying to do is get better at that game by game as we go through the season.”

Added Brooks, "When you don’t have Teonni, and you have to switch everything up, it’s a body that is taken out and taken away from us. It’s fouls, and then Clara has to play a certain way, and Tonie has to play a certain way. I don’t have very many plays in our playbook that don’t involve Clara or Teonni. So I was proud of Tonie; we put her in predicaments that were rough tonight. She did a really good job. Clara also did a really good job defensively. We put her in too many tough situations."

--Kentucky had a very comfortable lead in the first quarter. The contest was heading for a blowout when the Cats led the Gators 29-12. But Florida bounced back with a seven-point margin in the late third quarter. And the supportive crowd of nearly 3,400 got to see a very close and exciting matchup at the end.

--UK's next game is on Sunday when the Cats travel to Mississippi State. The 3 p.m. ET contest will be shown on SEC Network+.

Box Score