No. 16 Kentucky women’s basketball (20-8, 7-7 SEC) will head down to Alabama to take on Auburn (14-14, 3-11 SEC) as the regular season winds down.
What to watch –
Kentucky enters the matchup coming off of an excruciating loss against No. 5 Vanderbilt to move to 7-7 in conference play.
The loss was tough in every sense of the word – Kentucky maintained the lead for a majority of the game, yet Vanderbilt managed to do more to solidify the win in the final minutes.
Despite the loss, Kentucky’s starters and dominance in the opening quarter of play have been impressive recently.
All of Kentucky’s starters are averaging double-digit points, where Clara Strack leads the way with 16.5.
Strack is actually averaging a double-double per game, where she pairs 10.4 RPG with her PPG.
Tonie Morgan (14.3 PPG) leads in assists with 8.5 per game.
Recent showings have also moved Amelia Hassett back into double-digit scoring, where her and Asia Boone have been huge for Kentucky from the arc.
Boone (11.0 PPG), in general, has been one of the best Cats on the court recently.
She has shifted into the starting lineup in the past three games to play alongside Teonni Key, and has made at least three 3s in seven-straight games on 48.2% (47-56), only needing four more 3s to tie Rhyne Howard’s single-season school record set in 2019-20.
Auburn is similarly coming into Thursday’s game off of a loss, where it fell at home 74-52 to No. 23 Georgia.
Khady Leye led the Tigers with 16 points, five rebounds and two steals.
Auburn is generally outperformed by its conference opponents, and side-by-side with Kentucky, it only leads the Cats in SPG (11.1), turnovers per game (16.5) and free-throw percentage (71.1%).
The Tigers have notably held all of its opponents below their season scoring averages, and three (Cal, Florida and Alabama) have been held to their season low scoring total.
Auburn’s Kaitlyn Duhon has been formidable for the Tigers in recent games, where in the last three, she has averaged 17.6 PPG, 6.0 RPG and 3.3 SPG. Duhon also had a career-high 23 points at Texas A&M.
She sits at No. 2 in the conference and No. 15 nationally with her steal-averages.
Beyond its defensive feats, Auburn’s success at the free-throw line is a surefire way for the Tigers to get themselves on the board. Auburn went 19-of-20 on free throws in the fourth quarter against Alabama and Florida, and went 12-of-14 against Oklahoma.
This game will determine who leads in the all-time series, as well as who leads in Auburn. This is the 57th meeting between the two, where they are tied at 28 wins collectively and 24 in Auburn.
No. 15 Kentucky won last year’s meeting at home 80-61, and the Tigers took the last victory at home 78-50 in 2024.
The faceoff against the Wildcats will be Auburn’s last of the regular season, and it will be Kentucky’s road-slate closer.
If Kentucky can claim the victory, and then move on to win in their season closer against No. 3 South Carolina, then it will solidify better seeding looking at the postseason, and give them a chance to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
Auburn is pretty set to stand at the bottom of the SEC standings, despite a win or loss against the Wildcats.
Kentucky will travel to the Tigers on Thursday, Feb. 26, where they will want to secure a win to better their postseason slate. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m. ET, with game action available on the SEC Network.
