Kentucky wins, advances to SEC quarterfinal

Four days after beating one of the top teams in the country, Kentucky survived its first game of the SEC Women's Tournament on Thursday night.

Jennifer O'Neill scored 19 points, Linnae Harper added 18 points and the sixth-seeded Wildcats beat 11th-seeded Vanderbilt 67-61 in a second-round game at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.

Kentucky (22-8) will play third-seeded Mississippi State in a quarterfinal game on Friday.

"Very tough game," said Kentucky Coach Matthew Mitchell, whose team trailed 25-24 at halftime after leading 16-2 early in the first half. "We went through some adversity through the game. They came back with a fantastic second half."

The Wildcats and Bulldogs will play 25 minutes after the Georgia-Tennessee game, which is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Friday's winner will face either Georgia or Tennessee in the semifinals Saturday.

Kentucky had a first-round bye in the SEC Tournament and was coming off a

67-56 victory over South Carolina — ranked second in the country last week — on Sunday. South Carolina, the SEC's No. 1 seed in the tournament and ranked third in this week's Associated Press poll, faces ninth-seeded Arkansas at noon Friday.

Trailing 65-61, Vanderbilt had a chance to cut the lead to one possession, but Rebekah Dahlman was called for an offensive foul, nullifying her basket with 44.9 seconds left.

Vanderbilt Coach Melanie Balcomb disagreed with the call after the game.

"It was the game right there," Balcomb said. "I didn't see it that way, but you don't have control of that. That would have been a big play for us. But it turned out to be the opposite."

O'Neill sealed the victory for Kentucky with two free throws to set the final score.

The senior guard said the Wildcats have been able to key in on three things since before the South Carolina game: focus, responsibility and execution.

"That's what really got us through the South Carolina game and that's something we have to carry through this tournament," O'Neill said.

Kentucky shot 40.3 percent (25 of 62) from the floor and outrebounded Vanderbilt 41-31. Vanderbilt finished 23-of-54 (42.6 percent) from the floor. Marqu'es Webb led Vanderbilt (15-16) with 18 points. Jasmine Jenkins scored 12 points and Dahlman and Paris Kea each added 10 points.

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