The road struggles continued for Kentucky on Tuesday night.
Host Texas A&M ended the Wildcats’ two-game winning streak with a 96-85 win, handing Kentucky its third road setback in the past three weeks. The loss likely eliminated the Wildcats (19-11, 10-7 Southeastern Conference) from contention for a double-bye in next week’s SEC Tournament. Kentucky closes the regular season against No. 5 Florida on Saturday.
“We're disappointed with the outcome, disappointed with our effort,” Kentucky coach Mark Pope said. “I thought they played great. They shot the ball really well. They had great energy on the floor, and we didn't respond as well as we needed to during a 27-3 run there in the first half.”
Kentucky opened the game in impressive fashion and led 30-18 with seven minutes remaining in the first half. The Aggies (20-10, 10-7) closed the half with a 27-3 run and led 45-33 at the half.
Pope said his squad “went through a stretch where we just, we lost our minds, lost our intensity with winning and delivering catches.”
"We had a great focus and great intensity for the first 14 minutes of the game ... 12 minutes of the game were actually really good. And then we just lost our focus. We stopped fighting to win catches. We started getting really careless. We got sped up, which is what they do. We just didn't respond well, and it just spiraled a little bit out of control for us."
Otega Oweh, UK's senior leader, agreed.
“I think we could have just leaned into each other more, obviously,” he said. “When we're on the road, they're going to go on a run like that. It's easy to play into the crowd. I think we just kind of got a little rattled.”
Texas A&M stretched the margin to 21 at 73-52 in the second half and never trailed once it gained the lead in the opening half.
Oweh led all scorers with 24 points and nine rebounds. Oweh made nine free throws on 12 attempts and had five assists. Mohoumed Dioubate added 19 points and seven rebounds.
The Wildcats struggled against the Aggies’ pressure and committed 13 turnovers, with the hosts’ scoring 18 points off those miscues. Texas A&M made 13 3-pointers, including seven on 11 attempts in the second half.
“The fact that they were able to take those giveaways, 13 turnovers, 18 points is critical in a game like this,” Pope said. “It's really critical. … When we got careless, and then we kind of fell into impatience and a little bit of scattered after we got a little careless.”
Led by Dioubate, Kentucky got 39 points from its bench. Trent Noah just missed double figures with nine points, followed by Brandon Garrison, who had eight.
Coming off a career outing in a win over Vanderbilt with 23 points on Saturday, Collin Chandler managed just three points and made just one field goal on five attempts.
“They're the top three-point percentage defensive team in our league, and they get sped up, and they get you out of sorts,” Pope said of Chandler’s struggles behind the arc.
Gametracker: Florida at Kentucky, 3 p.m.CT, Saturday. TV/Radio: ESPN, UK Radio Network on 94.7 The Mix.
Kentucky Today File Photo
