Kentucky 88, No. 23 Florida 70

NORTH LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP)—Samantha Mahoney and Sarah Elliott each scored 20 points to lead Kentucky to an 88-70 victory over No. 23 Florida on Friday night in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference tournament.

Kentucky (21-7) will play No. 3 LSU in the semifinals on Saturday. The Tigers beat the Kentucky by 30 in December. Florida, which gave coach Carolyn Peck her first SEC tournament win Thursday night, shot just 32 percent for the game.

Sha Brooks scored 22 points for the Gators (21-8). They led 17-16 just over 8:30 into the game, but hit only two of their next 17 field goal attempts.

Elliott scored 10 first-half points and Mahoney had nine as the Wildcats built a 44-34 lead on 54 percent shooting.

The Gators’ shooting woes continued in the second half, when they made just 31 percent of their shots, which kept them from ever mounting a sustained comeback bid. Florida missed 16 of 18 3-point tries.

Five minutes after halftime, Mahoney hit a 3 to give Kentucky a 59-44 lead.

Brittany Davis’ free throw and Brooks’ 3-pointer cut the margin to 63-55 with 10:51 left, but the Wildcats had an answer every time the margin fell into single digits.

Nastassia Alcius hit a 3 with 6:23 remaining to make the lead 72-60, then added a pair of free throws to push the margin to 85-68 entering the final minute.

Alcius finished with 13 points while Jenny Pfeiffer scored 11. Jennifer Humphrey had 10 rebounds for the Wildcats.

Danielle Santos scored 11 and Sarah Lowe scored 10 for Florida, while Davis had 12 rebounds.