Kentucky’s comeback falls short. Cats lose third straight in Rupp Arena for first time.
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Game day: Gonzaga 89, No. 17 Kentucky 85
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader’s and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Gonzaga in Rupp Arena.
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For the first time in Rupp Arena’s history, the Kentucky Wildcats have lost three straight games on their home court.
The visiting Gonzaga Bulldogs defeated Kentucky 89-85 on Saturday, dealing the Cats their third home loss in two weeks. No UK team had lost three straight games at home since the 1966-67 Wildcats dropped that many in a row in Memorial Coliseum. The team moved to Rupp Arena in 1976.
UK lost home games to Florida and Tennessee last week before bouncing back with a 109-77 win over Vanderbilt, the lowest-rated team in the SEC, on Tuesday night.
Reed Sheppard (21 points), Antonio Reeves (17 points) and Adou Thiero (15 points) were UK’s leading scorers.
Kentucky had the ball down two points with 13 seconds left. Sheppard attempted to hit Thiero with an alley-oop with about six seconds remaining, but the play was intercepted by Gonzaga’s Ben Gregg, ending the Cats’ best shot at tying or taking the lead in the final seconds.
The Wildcats were playing without starting forward Tre Mitchell, who missed his second consecutive game with a back injury. Starting point guard D.J. Wagner, who missed the Florida, Tennessee and Vandy games with an ankle injury, returned for the Cats, but he played limited minutes, coming off the bench for the first time in his college career.
UK has still not played a game at full strength during the 2023-24 season.
Kentucky played one of its worst halves of the season in the opening 20 minutes Saturday, shooting 32.3% from the floor, making 3 of 10 on 3-pointers and giving Gonzaga open looks on the other end throughout the first half.
The result was a halftime score of 42-32, the Wildcats’ biggest deficit at the break all season.
The margin got bigger right out of the locker room, with Nolan Hickman drawing a foul and hitting two free throws to put the Zags up 44-32 just 12 seconds into the second half.
After that, the Cats came charging back. Kentucky scored the next six points to begin an 11-2 run that ultimately closed Gonzaga’s lead to 46-43 and had the Rupp Arena crowd rocking, forcing Mark Few to call a timeout before the first TV stoppage of the second half.
The Zags stretched their lead back out to six points shortly after that, and then came a Kentucky flurry, the Cats going on a 7-0 run in a matter of 64 seconds that featured putback dunks by Aaron Bradshaw and Thiero and then a 3-pointer by Reeves. That shot gave UK its first lead of the game, 52-51, and forced Few to call another timeout as Rupp Arena got even louder, “Go Big Blue!” chants ringing out during the stoppage of play.
Sheppard got a steal and layup on Gonzaga’s first possession out of the timeout, and Sheppard hit an and-one finish on Kentucky’s next possession. That put the Cats up 57-51, capping a 12-0 run in just three minutes of play.
The Zags fought back, however, taking the lead back from UK a few minutes later. Sheppard pulled the Cats even at 75-all with a sensational two-way play — a block of a 3-point attempt, then an and-one finish on the other end — but Gonzaga took the lead right back on its next possession. The Zags never trailed — and the game was never tied — again after that.
This was the second meeting in a six-game series between the two teams. Gonzaga won the first matchup 88-72 last season in Spokane Arena.
The 2024-25 edition will be played in Seattle.
Kentucky’s next game
The Wildcats will return to SEC play with a home date against Ole Miss (18-5, 5-5 SEC) in Rupp Arena on Tuesday night. The game is set for 9 p.m. on ESPN.
The Rebels started the season at 13-0 under first-year head coach Chris Beard, and they entered the weekend at No. 61 nationally in the KenPom ratings. They’re coming off consecutive losses to Auburn and South Carolina, though they played the No. 15-ranked Gamecocks close earlier this week, losing 68-65 in Columbia. (South Carolina beat Kentucky 79-62 last month.)
Ole Miss was the only SEC team that didn’t play Saturday, and the Rebels will have a full week off before their game in Lexington on Tuesday night.
This story was originally published February 10, 2024 at 6:25 PM.
