GREENVILLE, S.C. – Junior forward Sara Puckett fired in 22 points, and senior guard/forward Tess Darby recorded her first career double-double, pacing No. 5 seed Tennessee to a 76-62 victory over No. 12 seed Kentucky in the SEC Tournament Second Round on Thursday at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
The Lady Vols (18-11) advanced to Friday’s quarterfinal round, where they will meet No. 4 seed Alabama (23-8) at approximately 2:15 p.m. ET on SEC Network. Listen to the game on 99.5FM WGRV
Puckett connected on eight of 12 shots from the field for UT, including 4-of-6 accuracy from beyond the arc to pace the Big Orange’s offensive attack. Darby tossed in 10 points, including eight in the third period when UT began to separate from UK, and finished with a career-best 10 rebounds.
Senior guard Jewel Spear joined Puckett and Darby in double figures with 10, while fifth-year forward Rickea Jackson was just shy of a double-double of her own with eight points and nine boards.
The Wildcats were led in scoring by Saniah Tyler, who tallied 17 points. Ajae Petty contributed a double-double of 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Eniya Russell added 11 points in the loss.
After falling behind by five three times in the opening five minutes of the contest, including 12-7 at the 4:51 media timeout, the Lady Vols finally shook off their jitters. Kaiya Wynn hit a pair of free throws right after the break and then Puckett reeled off Tennessee’s next 10 points to provide her squad some momentum. First, the junior knocked down a pair of free throws at the 4:07 mark to cut the deficit to 14-11. She then drained a three-pointer with 3:29 remaining to even the score at 14. After knotting the game again at 16 via a jumper with 1:45 left, Puckett provided UT its first lead of the contest, 19-18, by sinking another trey and tallying the quarter’s final points with 1:01 left on the clock.
Puckett continued her torrid streak at the outset of the second stanza, netting a jumper for her 12th straight point and lifting Tennessee to a three-point cushion, 21-18, with 8:54 to go. After an Ajae Petty bucket in the paint cut the UT lead to one, 21-20, Jasmine Powell hit a layup and Wynn added a free throw to push the Big Orange ahead by four, 24-20, by the 5:19 mark. A pair of Karoline Striplin charity tosses boosted the lead to four once more at 26-22 with 3:22 left before Kentucky tied it up at 26 with 1:30 to go. Spear carded the final points of the period, getting a layup with 1:14 left on the clock to send the Big Orange into the locker room with a 28-26 advantage.
UK tied the game twice during the early going of the second half, including 30-30 with 8:35 remaining. Tennessee answered, though, getting a 5-0 Puckett run via a three-pointer and a turn-around jumper to make it 35-30 with 7:07 left. The Wildcats stormed right back, however, with Amiya Jenkins converting an old-fashioned three-point play to tie it at 35-all at the 6:25 mark. UT bounced right back with a run of its own, reeling off 10-straight, with a three-pointer by Tess Darby making it 45-35 Lady Vols with 3:50 remaining in the period and forcing a Kentucky timeout. Darby struck twice more in the third frame, with her put-back off a nifty Tamari Key rebound tap building a 48-41 lead at the 1:52 mark and her three with 1:19 to go pushing the gap to eight, 51-43. A Jasmine Powell layup with two seconds remaining in the third sent her team into the final quarter with its biggest lead at 53-44.
Tennessee opened the final period with a 7-2 run, building a 60-46 lead by the 5:54 mark on a Jackson layup. UK’s Tyler would trim the 14-point lead to nine, 63-54, by the 4:30 mark on a three-pointer, but consecutive scores by Jackson and Hollingshead on layups nudged the lead back to 13, 67-54, with 3:49 remaining. The teams exchanged baskets over the next two and a half minutes until a Jackson layup extended Tennessee’s gap to its highest of the game at 15, 74-59, with 55 ticks left before the Lady Vols closed out a 14-point win.
THE RETURN OF SARA BUCKETTS: Sara Puckett was on fire for the Lady Vols in the second round of the SEC Tournament, putting up 22 points and finishing just two shy of her career high. She also tied her season best of eight rebounds. The junior’s performance marked her third 20+ point contest and her fifth game leading Tennessee in scoring this season. She tied her season high with four makes from deep and posted her fourth game with 3+ 3-pointers in 2023-24.
