Kentucky WBB's fourth-quarter performance will go down in history

Kentucky Women’s Basketball took down a juggernaut on Sunday afternoon. Full stop. South Carolina has been the most dominant program in the entire country over the last five seasons. Yes, even more dominant than UConn and legendary head coach Geno Auriemma. The Gamecocks had won six of the previous seven SEC Championships and the national title in 2017. That’s where the context of this column begins.

At one point in the third quarter of UK’s 64-62 upset win over South Carolina, the ‘Cats trailed by 15 points. Entering the fourth quarter, the deficit was at 12. With just five minutes left, the Gamecock lead was still nine. But as Kentucky has done so well during its recent 10-game winning streak, the entire team refused to give in to the pressure. South Carolina scored just seven points in the fourth quarter while giving up 21 to the Wildcats. Kentucky ended the game on an 11-0 run.

National Player of the Year frontrunner Aliyah Boston shot just 1-4 in the fourth quarter for four points. The Gamecocks shot a combined 2-14 over that span. It was Dre’Una Edwards, not All-American superstar Rhyne Howard, who saved the day for Kentucky, too. The junior forward poured in 12 of her 27 points in the final frame, shooting 5-8 from the field. But a timely 3-pointer from Robyn Benton and two must-have buckets from Howard put all the pressure on South Carolina down the stretch.

Then, Edwards hit the shot of her life.

“I just kept telling my team, it ain’t over, it ain’t over,” Edwards said postgame. “We kept hyping each other up and they kept hyping me up and they kept telling me to go out there and score and I had to do it for my team.”

KENTUCKY HITS THE LATE THREE TO BEAT SOUTH CAROLINA AND WIN THE WOMEN'S SEC CHAMPIONSHIP 😱@KentuckyWBB pic.twitter.com/pOI2k7bsGe

— SEC Network (@SECNetwork) March 6, 2022

Edwards cemented her name in Kentucky Women’s Basketball history with that game-winner. This season will be remembered for that moment, along with the comeback effort from the entire team. In a way, that shot sums up this season perfectly. Kentucky was done for the majority of the game but peaked at the exact right moment. The same can be said of the team’s 9-11 start that has since morphed into a 10-game win streak.

Edwards felt like she owed it to Howard, arguably the program’s all-time greatest player, to knock down that shot. This was the school’s only conference title appearance since Howard arrived ahead of her freshman season. It’s one of the few items she still needed to check off her already Hall-of-Fame-worthy resume.

“We looked at each other and we both said ‘I love you, man’,” Edwards said. “(Rhyne) kept saying thank you and I said ‘Man, this was for you. I had to get you one before you left, man. I had to.'”

Kentucky drew up the play for Howard to take the final shot, but South Carolina quickly sniffed that out and denied her the ball before it could the play could begin. Running to her left, Jazmine Massengill received a handoff from Treasure Hunt at the top of the key before using an Edwards screen. Edwards slipped that screen the moment Massengill brushed by her and received a perfect pass with a few feet of room between her and South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston.

Edwards knew she’d make the shot, she just needed the time and space to get it off. The rest is now history.

“I told Dre if they go with Rhy and you are open, take the shot. Rhythm shots,” UK head coach Kyra Elzy said postgame. “Don’t make any decision, a rhythm shot. I’m confident in that shot, she works on it, and when the shot went up I knew it was good. It looked good. I started running down the sidelines, I knew it was good.”

The shot is what everyone will remember, but Kentucky’s defense was the only reason it was in a position to win the game. South Carolina failed to score over the final 5:04. Overall, the Gamecocks shot just 33.3 percent from the floor. Edwards delivered the final blow, though, and took down the No. 1 team in the country in the process.