Kentucky
Kentucky earns much-needed win against Florida
about an hour ago
Kentucky Athletics
In the midst of a six-game losing streak, the Kentucky women’s basketball team needed something positive to happen. And on Sunday, it did.
In front of more than 90 women’s basketball alumnae, Kentucky snapped it’s skid by beating Florida 81-77 at Rupp Arena.
“I’m just so proud of the fight of this team,” said UK head coach Kyra Elzy. “We talked about one stop at a time, get a rebound and let’s run the other way. I was proud of our defense. It held today when we had to have it.”
Eniya Russell led the way with a career-high 24 points for Kentucky. The Baltimore native added five rebounds and three assists.
Maddie Scherr had 14 points before fouling out in the fourth quarter. Ajae Petty had her 14th double-double of the season with 10 points and 13 rebounds. Sophomore Amiya Jenkins had 10 points and seven rebounds for the Cats.
Florida scored first, but Kentucky tied the game on a Petty basket. After Florida took a 4-2 lead, UK got a three from Emma King and an Eniya Russell layup to lead 7-4. The Gators would score the next five points to lead 9-7 before Kentucky got a layup from Brooklynn Miles and a basket from Janae Walker.
Florida would score four in a row before Maddie Scherr hit a three to give the Cats a 14-13 lead. After Florida took a 15-14 lead on an Alberte Rimdal basket, Miles hit a three to give UK a 17-15 lead. The Gators got the last basket of the period and the game was tied 17-17 after one quarter.
In the second quarter, Florida took the lead on a Rimdal three and the Gators would hold that advantage until the Cats got layups from Jenkins and Petty to lead 27-25. Florida took the lead back and led 31-29 before the Cats scored five in a row, including a Russell three, to lead 34-31. Kentucky would lead 36-34 at the break.
Florida opened the third quarter with a 7-0 run to take a 41-36 lead. Kentucky would answer by scoring the next nine points, including a pair of Saniah Tyler baskets, to lead 45-41. The back and forth continued with the Gators scoring the next 10 points and grabbing a 51-45 advantage. UK got back within one, 51-50, on a Russell putback. But Florida would make six of its last seven shots in the period and led 60-54 after three quarters.
In the fourth quarter, Florida would lead 65-58 when Kentucky made its run. The Cats went on a 7-2 stretch that got them within two, 67-65, with 6:09 to play. UK continued to fight back, eventually tying the game at 69-69 on a Scherr bank shot. But Florida took the lead back on the next possession. Again, the Cats would not go away, tying the game at 71 apiece before a Tyler layup gave UK the lead with 3:21 to play.
Tyler added a free throw to make it 74-71 before Florida got a Jeriah Warren basket to get back within one, 74-73. UK got a Petty basket inside to extend the lead to 76-73 with 2:06 remaining. A Russell free throw extended the UK lead to 77-73 with 34 seconds remaining.
Florida got back within two, 77-75, on a Zipporah Broughton layup with 26 seconds left. Russell hit two free throws with 24 seconds left to make it 79-75. A Miles free throw made it 80-75 with 15 seconds left. The Cats would hang on from there.
Kentucky returns to action on Thursday, visiting Starkville to face Mississippi State. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m. ET and the game can be seen on SEC Network Plus.
Over the weekend, it was reported that the Kentucky Wildcats and coach Mark Pope had interest in former James Madison forward Justin McBride. Now, per Jacob Polacheck of Kentucky Sports Radio, McBride will take a visit to Lexington.
The report states that McBride will visit with Kentucky on Wednesday, Apr. 22. He had previously stated that he wanted to visit, but had to clear up some transcript issues first. It appears that things are worked out there now.
McBride is a 6’8″, 230 lb forward who has versatility. He averaged 15.3 points and 5.6 rebounds last season, but also made 40% of his three-point attempts, making him the kind of stretch big Pope likes to use. He could start, or be a valuable player off the bench.
Pope needs some recruiting wins, and he needs some depth for next year’s team. Right now, there are still more questions than answers, and Big Blue Nation is getting restless. We will update this story after his visit and more news becomes available.
Entering the weekend, Vanderbilt baseball had gotten swept in its only SEC series in which it hadn’t won the first game.
So the Commodores had a tough task in a series they badly needed after dropping the opener 5-2 on a walk-off grand slam after Vanderbilt’s best healthy starter, Connor Fennell, pitched well.
But the Commodores (24-17, 9-9 SEC) rebounded to take the series with an 8-7 win in the second game and a 13-6 win in the finale April 19. They did that despite not having any pitcher go more than three innings in either game. Though the pitching was still shaky at times — they issued more free passes than strikeouts in both of the wins — they worked out of enough jams to let the offense go to work.
Here’s what we learned from the series.
Will Hampton proves an unlikely hero for the offense
Vanderbilt got strong performances from a few of its typical top performers, including Braden Holcomb (6-for-13, four doubles) and Brodie Johnston (4-for-12, two home runs, three walks). But one of the biggest hits of the series came from the unlikeliest of sources.
Logan Johnstone was held out of the finale after colliding with Mike Mancini in Game 2, and in his place coach Tim Corbin opted to go with redshirt freshman Will Hampton in left field. Hampton had recorded just six college plate appearances, all of which were in nonconference games.
But Hampton reached in all three of his plate appearances against Kentucky, first on a single, then a walk. In the sixth inning, with the score tied, he came up with the bases loaded and two outs and blasted a grand slam, giving Vanderbilt its first lead.
Tyler Baird learns the ups and downs of being a closer
Freshman Tyler Baird has been Vanderbilt’s closer for the past three weeks, recording his first save April 2 against Texas A&M. But he learned the pitfalls that can come with that role in Game 1 against Kentucky. Summoned for an eight-out save with the Commodores leading 2-1, he retired the first five batters, but loaded the bases with nobody out in the ninth. He struck out the next two batters but then gave up the walk-off grand slam.
Baird returned for Game 3, this time attempting a five-out save and coming in with runners on first and second and one out with a three-run lead in the eighth inning. He allowed both inherited runners to score, but kept the lead and then had a scoreless ninth inning after Vanderbilt scored three runs in the top of the inning.
Baird’s emergence has been key for the Commodores, and the Game 3 bounce-back was especially important.
Vanderbilt’s RPI shows improvement
On April 15, Vanderbilt was 95th in RPI, a mark that wasn’t going to cut it for NCAA Tournament selection. But with a road series win against a Kentucky team that started the week in the top 20 of RPI, the Commodores moved all the way up to 75th, according to Warren Nolan.
While Vanderbilt will need to keep moving up — a top-50 mark would be ideal — the series win did a lot. In the next two weeks, it will face two top-five RPI teams in Alabama and Texas, giving more opportunity to improve its standing.
Aria Gerson covers Vanderbilt athletics for The Tennessean. Contact her at agerson@gannett.com or on X @aria_gerson.
Power forward has been one of the positions that Mark Pope and the Kentucky Wildcats have to fill with Andrija Jelavic and Mo Dioubate gone. The two players that Pope has had on campus at the power forward position are Syracuse’s Donnie Freeman and Colorado’s Sebastian Rancik. Both are really good players, but Freeman is better by a wide margin.
It has felt that entire time that Kentucky wanted Rancik as the backup to Freeman or a backup plan if they weren’t able to land Freeman. Well, Rancik just picked Florida State, so perhaps this is a sign that the Wildcats will land Freeman.
Big Blue Nation was torn on Rancik, but I do believe he would have been a really solid backup power forward. I personally didn’t want him to be the starting four for this team. It is clear that he wanted to go somewhere where he could be the guy at the four, so he will be heading to the ACC to play for FSU.
Now that Kentucky has missed on Rancik, it is very important that the Wildcats land Freeman soon. The problem with waiting on some of these players is the fact that the portal isn’t slowing down. If Pope targets two power forwards and misses on both of them, most of the good fours in the portal will be gone.
There will be some panic in Lexington if the Wildcats are not able to land Freeman, but I do believe the Wildcats are in a good spot to land the elite power forward. From the beginning, Freeman has been my top player for Kentucky in the portal, as he, plus Malachi Moreno, will give the Wildcats an elite frontcourt.
If Pope is able to land Freeman and Tyran Stokes to pair with Zoom Diallo, Alex Wilkins, Moreno, and Kam Williams, this could be the start of a really good team in Lexington. Hopefully, an announcement for where Freeman will transfer comes soon, and hopefully, this will be to play for Pope at Kentucky.
Fans of rival teams will say Pope “whiffed” on Rancik, but if this whiff was because the Wildcats are set to land Freeman soon, then it was more than worth it for Kentucky. If the Wildcats are able to land Freeman, it will officially be time for Big Blue Nation to start getting excited about the 2026-27 season. I expect a decision from Freeman to come within the next day or two.
Rancik would have been a solid backup four in Lexington but Freeman has been the guy from the beggining for this staff so if Kentucky lands him all is well. If the staff misses on Freeman not landing Rancik will look bad.
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