No. 10 Kentucky women beat No. 8 Tennessee 78-65

Sunday, the No. 8 Lady Volunteers came out flat on the road and dropped their regular-season finale 78-65 on the road to No. 10 Kentucky.

Tennessee (23-6, 14-2) committed a season-high 31 turnovers and gave up 19 offensive rebounds to a Wildcats team that needed a win to clinch the No. 2 seed in the SEC tournament, which begins Wednesday.

"Well, I thought it would be difficult for two games of this magnitude to play back-to-back," Warlick said. "You've got to take care of the ball and you've got to bring your defense. We didn't bring our defense. You've got to bring your defense and you've got to rebound it, and we didn't do those two things."

With the league title wrapped up, Warwick said she considered whether Sunday's loss would play into Tennessee's eventual NCAA tournament seeding. But her primary focus was on how it prepared her team to play in the SEC tournament.

The Lady Volunteers were sloppy at times, particularly at the beginnings of both halves, but came back into an intense focus to draw as close as within two points just before halftime.

Kentucky (25-4, 13-3) opened the second half with nine unanswered points, and it grew a lead as large as 19 points before coasting to the final buzzer.

"We didn't come ready to play, honestly. For me, we started off late in the game," said Tennessee guard Meighan Simmons, who scored a team-high 17 points. "We started to pick things up later on in the game but we didn't start off as strong as we should have."

Both Isabelle Harrison and Ariel Massengale suffered knee injuries Thursday against Texas A&M, and the injury forced Harrison to miss the game Sunday. Warlick said her status is "week by week," and it's unclear if she'll play in the SEC tournament.