LEXINGTON, Ky. — It was looking rough for the Kentucky Wildcats in their return to Rupp Arena on Tuesday night.

And then the shots started falling.

Mark Pope’s No. 8-ranked Cats weathered an early storm before coming on toward the end of the first half and staying in control from there for a 81-69 victory over No. 11 Texas A&M, its second consecutive win over a top-15 team and the fifth of Kentucky’s season so far.

Last week, the Wildcats lost at Georgia — now 23rd in the AP Top 25 poll — before beating No. 14 Mississippi State in Starkville, Miss., on Saturday night. Their last game in Rupp was a 106-100 win over No. 6 Florida on Jan. 4, and UK had earlier wins over Duke and Gonzaga, which were both ranked in the top 10 at the time.

Jaxson Robinson — fresh off his best game as a Wildcat — was the star for Kentucky again in this one, scoring 22 points and tying a career-high with eight rebounds. He was 5 for 13 from 3-point range.

Andrew Carr added 13 points while continuing to play with a back injury. Otega Oweh had thunderous dunk over A&M’s Pharrel Payne and finished with 11 points. He’s now scored in double figures for all 17 of his games as a UK player. Amari Williams recorded eight points, 12 rebounds and four assists. Lamont Butler had six points, seven assists and three steals.

Kentucky (14-3, 3-1 SEC) shot 60.9% from the field in the second half after a poor start. Texas A&M (13-4, 2-2 SEC) was 7 for 17 from 3-point range late in the first half before missing 13 straight and finishing 7 for 30 from deep.

UK also outrebounded the Aggies 40-30 and won second-chance points 13-11, a nice showing against the nation’s No. 1 offensive rebounding team. This performance on the boards came after Kentucky outrebounded Mississippi State 41-33 in a 95-90 win in Starkville on Saturday night.

Kentucky got off to a terrible shooting start against the Aggies — missing 14 of its first 19 shots and 10 of its first 11 3-point attempts — in a game that was ugly for much of the first half. The Cats trailed for most of the period, but Robinson — three days removed from dropping 27 points on Mississippi State — nailed three 3-pointers in the final 3:13 before halftime to send UK into the locker room with a 35-32 lead at the break.

Robinson, who played for Texas A&M as a freshman, turned around and said something in the direction of the Aggies bench after hitting the second in that trio of 3s, and he was called for a technical foul as a result. With a few seconds remaining in the half, Robinson hit another 3 from basically the same spot — right in front of the A&M bench — and made a gesture in the Aggies direction. That gave the Cats a three-point lead, and it gave Robinson 15 first-half points.

After scoring the final five points of the first half, Kentucky tallied the first eight points of the second half, Robinson nailing another 3-pointer to cap the 13-0 run and give the Wildcats an 11-point lead.

Travis Perry hit a 3 — his second in a span of 90 seconds — on UK’s next possession to put the Cats up 46-34 before the first TV timeout of the second half. With A&M still hanging around in the final minutes, Robinson hit a baseline jumper on one side of the court and ran the baseline for a dunk on the other to give UK a 65-54 lead. The Aggies never got closer than eight points again.

Texas A&M was playing without veteran guard Wade Taylor IV, who was the 2023-24 SEC preseason player of the year and was a first-team all-league selection coming into this season. Taylor, who is averaging 15.7 points and 4.8 assists, missed his third consecutive game with an undisclosed injury.

The only Kentucky player who was unavailable for Tuesday night’s game was point guard Kerr Kriisa, who has been sidelined since suffering a foot injury Dec. 7 against Gonzaga. There is no timetable for Kriisa’s return to the court, but Pope said Monday night that he’s on the path to recovery, and he was on the Rupp court a couple of hours before tipoff Tuesday night putting up shots. Carr was listed on Monday’s injury report as “probable” and was in the starting lineup, as usual, against the Aggies.

This weekend will bring yet another formidable opponent to Rupp Arena.

Next up for the Wildcats: a noon date with No. 4 Alabama on Saturday (ESPN) in what will be a battle of two of the nation’s top offenses. Coming into the day, Bama ranked No. 2 in the country in offensive efficiency, and UK was No. 3 on that list, while the Crimson Tide led the nation with 91.1 points per game and the Cats were third at 89.2.

Alabama dropped 14-3 and 3-1 in the SEC after losing its first league game at Ole Miss on Tuesday night., a result that left the No. 21 Rebels and top-ranked Auburn as the only unbeaten teams in conference play.

After Saturday’s matchup, Kentucky will have a week off before its road trip to Vanderbilt on Jan. 25, the final break between games for the rest of the season.

____

©2025 Lexington Herald-Leader. Visit at kentucky.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.