The latest Kentucky comeback falls short. Cats upset by Ohio State in a rout.

Ben Roberts, Lexington Herald-Leader on Dec 21, 2024

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

NEW YORK — The Kentucky Wildcats made a run at another second-half comeback.

This time, they couldn’t do it.

Ohio State knocked off the No. 4-ranked Wildcats, 85-65, in the CBS Sports Classic in Madison Square Garden on Saturday night, sending UK into a prolonged holiday break on a sour note.

The Buckeyes (8-4) were just one week removed from a 38-point loss to No. 2 Auburn, but they remain a dangerous bunch with plenty of talent. That was clear from the get-go Saturday, and by halftime Ohio State had opened a nine-point lead on the Wildcats.

This Kentucky team had come back from worse. The Cats were also down nine at the half to Duke — one of the top teams in the country — and came back to win that one. More recently, UK erased a 16-point halftime deficit to beat Gonzaga in Seattle. And even in their lone loss of the season, the Cats — down seven points at the half at Clemson — actually came back to take the lead in the second half before falling in the end.

They couldn’t take the lead in this one.

Ohio State opened its advantage to 15 points less than two minutes into the second half. The Cats then rallied, closing the Buckeyes’ lead to 51-45 with a flurry led by Otega Oweh, but OSU later extended its lead to 15 again. With the MSG crowd behind them, the Cats kept clawing back, but they couldn’t get any closer than eight points before the end.

Kentucky fell to 10-2 on the season.

Oweh led the Cats with 21 points, going 13 for 13 from the foul line. Andrew Carr had 12 points, and Jaxson Robinson added 11 points.

Bruce Thornton led Ohio State with 30 points, and former Kentucky forward Aaron Bradshaw scored 11 points for the Buckeyes in his first game in more than a month.

The score was close in the early going.

Neither team led by more than four points — an 11-7 advantage for Kentucky — until nearly 15 minutes into the first half, when the Buckeyes were in the middle of what ended up being an 8-0 run. Ohio State’s lead was as big as 10 points in the first half before taking a 39-30 advantage into the break.

The Buckeyes got easy buckets near the rim — beating UK 24-10 in points in the paint in the first half — and made six of their final seven shots from the field before halftime. Meanwhile, the Cats missed eight of their last nine shot attempts of the half, going more than eight minutes without a bucket in that stretch.

Ohio State scored the first six points of the second half to take a 45-30 lead.

For the game, Ohio State shot 30 for 53 (56.6%) from the field, while Kentucky was just 17 for 57 (29.8%). The Buckeyes outscored the Cats 36-24 in the paint.

Lamont Butler, the star of Kentucky’s last game — scoring 33 points on a perfect shooting night in a victory over rival Louisville — was mired in foul trouble for much of Saturday’s game. Butler picked up his second foul with 6:14 left in the first half and then committed his third foul less than four minutes into the second half. His fourth foul came with 4:39 remaining, and he fouled out with 1:43 left.

Butler had four points on 1-for-7 shooting, with five assists and four turnovers in 27 minutes.

Bradshaw made his return to the court Saturday against his old team, playing for the first time since Nov. 19 after being removed from team activities. His absence came while Ohio State investigated a possible domestic incident at his off-campus apartment.

Bradshaw started OSU’s first four games of the season and came off the bench before the first TV timeout Saturday against the Wildcats, checking in to mostly boos from the pro-UK crowd.

Kentucky fell to 0-3 against the Buckeyes in the CBS Sports Classic, and Ohio State tied the all-time series between the two teams at 11-11. The last time the Wildcats beat the Buckeyes was their upset victory in the 2011 NCAA Tournament, en route to a Final Four appearance.

The Wildcats will now have more than a week off before their next game — a New Year’s Eve date in Rupp Arena with Ivy League foe Brown University, which will be the final nonconference matchup before SEC play begins two weeks from now.

Kentucky and Brown (7-3) are scheduled for an earlier-than-usual 2 p.m. tipoff on Dec. 31 on ESPNU. (The Bears will play No. 8-ranked Kansas at 3 p.m. Sunday on ESPN.)