UK Women Whip Arkansas 94-64 in SEC Tournament

By Jamie H. Vaught

KySportsStyle.com Magazine

The last time Kentucky women played Arkansas was on February 1 and the Wildcats, led by Clara Strack's career-high 33 points, won 93-73, a 20-point decision, at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville.

And the No. 9 seed UK faced No. 16 seed Arkansas again Wednesday in the first round of the 2026 SEC Tournament in Greenville, S.C., and the Wildcats did even better, whipping the Razorbacks 94-64, a 30-point margin. It was the largest SEC Tournament victory for UK.

Coming off Sunday's 60-56 loss to powerhouse South Carolina in Lexington, Kentucky bounced back and played well, featuring a balanced scoring attack with six players in double figures. The Wildcats, who are ranked No. 17 in this week's AP Top 25 poll, also outrebounded Arkansas by a big margin at 52-27.

With the blowout victory, Kentucky, now 22-9 overall, advanced to the second round and the Cats will face No. 8 seed Georgia Thursday morning at 11 p.m. ET. The game will be shown on the SEC Network.

On UK's rebounding advantage, Kentucky coach Kenny Brooks said, "We're tall. You know, we're long, and that is our strength. Some people will use their strength as speed, the quickness. Our strength is length. That kind of goes well when we're able to contest shots, block shots, but also rebound the basketball. We knew that was going to be a plus for us today and we had to take advantage of it."

Leading the Cats was 6-foot-5 Strack, an All-SEC performer who had a team-high 20 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. It was her 14th double-double of the season.

UK's Amelia Hassett added 18 points, including 6 of 11 three-pointers. Hassett and Asia Boone are tied with the single-season school record with three-point field goals (86). Kentucky point guard Tonie Morgan had 10 assists along with 14 points, her seventh double-double of the season.

Jordan Obi also had 14 points and 10 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season.

Taleyah Jones of Arkansas took the game's scoring honors with 21 points. The Razorbacks, under first-year coach Kelsi Musick, finished their season with a 12-20 mark.

On playing consecutive days in the SEC Tournament, Strack commented the team is "just taking it one game at a time, one quarter at a time, one possession at a time. Not looking too far into the future, because you got to win the one that's in front of you to make it those consecutive days. So, like I said, we're focusing on the next game. Obviously we're going to rest in between as much as we can, but I think it's really just, like, a mentality, a mindset going into each and every game that you have to win this one in order to even worry about the next one."

Musick has high praise for the Wildcats.

"They're a tough team," said the Arkansas coach. "I think they're a tough draw for anybody. Just their last game on Sunday was a really tight game as they closed out their regular season. Phenomenal team. Very well-coached."

UK's Thursday morning matchup with Georgia should be interesting. It was the unranked Bulldogs who defeated the Cats 72-67 at Historic Memorial Coliseum in late January. At the time, UK was playing without 6-foot-5 senior standout Teonni Key, who had suffered an elbow injury, missing several games.

"it was a very difficult situation last time. We were pretty much less than 48 hours off of an emotional loss (60-58) at Tennessee, came back, had to play that game," said Brooks. "We were not full strength, and I'm sure they weren't. We didn't have Teonni Key in that game."

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