Kentucky survives Ole Miss comeback to come away with big-time 74-57 victory

No. 18 Kentucky and No. 14 Ole Miss were heading into a big-time matchup on Sunday with some pretty massive implications on the line. With a win, Kentucky could jump into the top 16 overall seeds in the NCAA Tournament, which would put the Cats in position to host. The Rebels were the No. 15 overall seed in the first top 16 seeds reveal. The Cats would more than likely swap places with Ole Miss if they could get the win.

Kentucky managed to secure the dub, taking down the Rebels 74-57 to move to 20-7 (7-6 SEC) on the season.

Kentucky got out to a 17-11 lead to conclude the first quarter, and was thanks in large part to Clara Strack, who ended the period with eight points on 3-5 shooting. The 6-foot-5 center was imposing her will on the offensive end of the floor, and that needed to continue if Kentucky was going to pull out the win.

Over the course of seven minutes in the second quarter, Kentucky went on a 19-0 run and got out to a 39-15 lead over the Rebels. Strack had 12 points, six rebounds and two blocks at the break, and Asia Boone being 4-6 from three-point range only added fuel to Kentucky’s fire. At the half, it was 39-20 Cats.

Ole Miss came out in the third quarter looking to muck things up, and it worked in their favor. Kentucky started to turn the ball over a bit, more rebounds went to the Rebels and what was once a 24-point lead had been trimmed to 13 by the end of the quarter. With 10 minutes left in regulation, the Cats led 55-42.

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It wasn’t easy, but Kentucky managed to hangon to get the win. This will go down as a very significant Quad 1 win for the Cats. It got down to a 57-51 lead before Kentucky pulled away.

Kentucky will get a week off before heading down to Nashville to take on No. 5 Vanderbilt in order to get some revenge from the 84-83 loss to the Commodores on Feb. 5. Vandy just lost to Georgia 76-74 after. a missed floater at the buzzer to tie things up earlier this afternoon. The second meeting between Kentucky and Vanderbilt will be on Feb. 22 at 3 p.m. ET on SEC Network+.