When No. 12 Kentucky entered the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma, as five-and-a-half point underdogs against the No. 13 Oklahoma Sooners, the Wildcats were expected to be battling the whole game, trying to pull off a much-needed conference win on the road.
Against all expectations, graduate transfer Georgia Amoore scored a career-high 43 points against the Sooners. She became just the fifth player in Division-I this season to score as many as 43 points and the second in the SEC.
Amoore started the game off hot, scoring ten points in the first quarter, setting the tone for the Wildcats’ offensively dominant performance.
Six points came off of 3-pointers, and that would carry into the second quarter, where she put up yet another ten points with two more 3-pointers. Heading into the half, she became the first UK player to have at least 20 points in the first half since Rhyne Howard in 2022.
To start the second half, she had the quietest quarter in scoring, allowing Oklahoma to chip away at the UK’s lead. However, she still scored another three and had two assists.
The fourth quarter was all about Amoore. Her offensive dominance and explosive performance made it impossible for Oklahoma to have any chance of a comeback.
She hit two threes in the first two minutes of play to extend Kentucky’s lead to double digits. After that, she was simply unstoppable, sealing the victory for Kentucky.
She ended the quarter with 18 points, shooting 5-6 in field goals, 3-4 from the three and, most importantly, 6-8 from the free-throw line, allowing Kentucky to walk away with a hard-fought win against the Sooners.
Head Coach Kenny Brooks has been coaching Amoore since she was a freshman at Virginia Tech, and after seeing her play in 147 games, Brooks could not have been prouder.
“That is extreme company she’s in,” Brooks said. “She had it in shootaround. She really picked them apart. I’ve watched her play a lot, that’s the best game I’ve ever seen her play.”
Amoore ended the game with 43 points and eight assists, shooting 68.2% (15-22) in field goals, 58.3%(7-12) from the three and 75.0% (6-8) in free throws.
She has continued to impress throughout the season, passing 2,000 career points and 800 career assists. While her four seasons at Virginia Tech fueled most of her milestones, she now finds herself among Kentucky’s greats in the record books.
Amoore, who was recently named a finalist for the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year award, became the sixth player in program history to have a forty-point game, and her 43 points have tied both Rhyne Howard and Jennifer O’Neill for the most points in a single game in program history as well.
“It’s unreal. It’s a huge honor,” Amoore said. “It sounds cliche, but I couldn’t have done it without my teammates. We kept moving the ball and punishing their defense.”
Many were shocked when Amoore announced last April that she would be taking her fifth and final year of eligibility to follow Coach Brooks to Kentucky because she was expected to be a first-round WNBA draft pick.
However, she seems to have made the right choice to come to Lexington. She is continuing to move up the draft board, and multiple experts are now projecting her to be a top-ten pick overall, and, with her recent performance, she could go even higher.
The 5-foot-6 guard is currently averaging 19.4 points, 2.4 rebounds and 7.5 assists on the season, shooting 43.4% in field goals.
While Amoore’s performance against the Sooners is one to remember, it is just the beginning of the gauntlet of Kentucky’s schedule in the second half of conference play.
Four of the next eight games are against ranked opponents. Most notably, the Cats must play a brutal three-game stretch, including No. 6 LSU and No. 19 Tennessee, and end the season on the road against No. 2 South Carolina, which remains undefeated in the SEC.
“Every single game, we go out there confident and that’s what we came to Kentucky for, this is what we came to the SEC for,” Amoore said. “We want these matchups, and it just so happens that we do happen to have a tough stretch, but that should bring excitement for us.”
Amoore and the Wildcats will return next Monday, Feb. 10, when they travel to Oxford and face Ole Miss (15-7, 6-4 SEC) at 7 p.m. ET. The game will be aired live on ESPN2.
