No. 9 seeded Kentucky women’s basketball (22-9, 8-8 SEC) convincingly took down No. 16 Arkansas (12-20, 1-15 SEC) 94-64 in the opening round of the SEC Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina.
The game featured the entirety of Kentucky’s starting lineup reaching double-digit scoring, as well as a double-double from reserve Jordan Obi.
While every Wildcat did their part in pushing Kentucky to its largest win against a conference opponent this season, which includes every person on Kentucky’s bench, Obi proved against the Razorbacks that when she’s in her stride, she is a pivotal piece to Kentucky’s game.
Obi opened up the season for the Cats starting at the shooting guard position, taking on the court with Tonie Morgan, Clara Strack, Amelia Hassett and Teonni Key.
After the completion of non-conference play, Obi was averaging 11.6 PPG and 7.0 RPG, shooting 55.8% from the field.
Through the first two games of conference play, against LSU and Missouri, her numbers dropped slightly, yet she was still in double-digit scoring.
Against Missouri, however, Key was injured and Obi was forced into the power forward position so Asia Boone could take over at shooting guard.
While Kentucky was working to rebuild its chemistry after the loss of one of its key players, Obi began to get into a groove at the forward spot.
Suddenly, Key was back, and Obi started struggling to make big impacts for Kentucky. That’s when head coach Kenny Brooks decided to continue starting Boone and to substitute Obi into the four quickly.
“It was not a demotion by no means,” Brooks said after the Texas A&M game where she first shifted to the sixth-man role. “[…] So, we just thought, ‘Hey, let’s let her first action be at the four spot so that she can kind of get some touches.’”
Now six games into the new method, Obi is truly showing why she’s so important to the Wildcats.
In a little over 27 minutes of action, Obi was one of three Cats to hit a double-double against Arkansas with her 14 points and 10 rebounds.
She entered the game three minutes in and, just nine seconds later, converted a layup through contact for an and-one to start off her morning.
Obi’s shooting was generally just hard to beat – she shot 1-of-1 from beyond the arc, 3-of-3 from the charity stripe and 5-of-8 (62.5%) from the field.
One thing that Obi’s style of play highlights is her physicality, where she prefers the paint and dominates at the rim courtesy of her strength and length.
The thing that matches that perfectly is the physicality of the SEC, and as the tournament continues to narrow in strength, Obi will be key to Kentucky’s success in the paint, and overall success in the tournament.
“I think it just goes back to trusting the work I put in, [the] seasons full of highs and lows – not getting too high, not getting too low,” Obi said about how she’s been playing following the Arkansas game. “[you] know, trusting my teammates, trusting my coaches, trusting the work I put in, it’ll pay off eventually.”
Kentucky women’s basketball will take on No. 8 seed Georgia (22-8, 8-8 SEC) on Thursday, March 5 at 11 a.m. EST in the second round of the SEC Tournament. Game action can be streamed on the SEC Network.
