Bad times continue for Kentucky basketball. Cats lose by 14 points at No. 25 Ole Miss
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Game day: No. 25 Ole Miss 98, No. 14 Kentucky 84
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Mississippi in Oxford, Miss.
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It was a nightmare on both ends for the Kentucky Wildcats on Tuesday night.
Playing shorthanded again, UK was no match for No. 25 Ole Miss, which ran the No. 14 Cats off the court in the first half and rolled to a 98-84 victory in SJB Pavilion.
The game was basically finished by halftime.
Ole Miss jumped out to a 5-0 advantage in the first 50 seconds, took a two-possession lead for good with 17 minutes left in the first half and led by double digits for most of the game.
The Rebels closed the first half on an 8-0 run to take a 54-31 lead into the break. Kentucky was outscored 15-3 over the final five minutes of the first half.
It was Kentucky’s largest halftime deficit since Feb. 16, 2013, when the Wildcats found themselves trailing Tennessee 50-26 at the break. That was UK’s first game following the season-ending injury to star center Nerlens Noel, and those Cats ultimately lost 88-58 in Knoxville.
This Kentucky team was playing without both of its veteran point guards — Lamont Butler and Kerr Kriisa — once again Tuesday night.
Butler missed his third consecutive game after suffering a shoulder injury against Texas A&M three weeks ago. Kriisa has now been sidelined for more than eight weeks after undergoing foot surgery to repair an injury sustained in UK’s win over Gonzaga on Dec. 7.
Since beating Texas A&M, the Wildcats have now lost four of five games, with only an upset win at now-No. 4 Tennessee in the victory column over that stretch. UK was 14-3 ( 3-1 in the SEC) before this skid. The Cats are now 15-7, with a losing record (4-5) at the halfway point of league play.
Otega Oweh led Kentucky with 24 points Tuesday night. Jaxson Robinson added 18 points for the Cats, and Amari Williams tallied a triple-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in the loss. Koby Brea was also in double figures with 10 points. Andrew Carr, who has been dealing with a back injury, had 10 points in 23 minutes.
Matthew Murrell led Ole Miss with 24 points.
The Wildcats looked out of sorts from the opening minute, and their struggles continued throughout the night.
By halftime, Ole Miss — a team that had shot 19-for-60 on 3-pointers over its previous three games — was 9-for-17 from long range. Rebels forward Malik Dia nailed a 3-pointer on Ole Miss’ first possession of the second half to make it a 26-point lead, and Murrell made another 3-pointer on the next trip. Ole Miss was 11-for-19 from deep by that point.
The Rebels finished the game at 13-for-30 from 3-point range.
Kentucky’s defense didn’t force the first Ole Miss turnover until 14:46 left in the game. That was the Rebels’ only turnover of the game.
Meanwhile, UK’s offense was stagnant over the first 20 minutes. Possession after possession, the Cats failed to create open looks and often ended up with contested shots. They were 12-for-31 from the floor in the first half and went just 7-for-21 on 2-point shots.
UK managed to score 12 points on dunks and layups in the first four minutes of the second half, yet the Cats couldn’t get corresponding stops on the other end. Despite Kentucky’s good looks at the rim out of halftime, Ole Miss’ lead had grown to 25 points by the first TV timeout of the second half.
The Rebels led by as many as 27 points before UK chipped away at that advantage, getting as close as 11 points down the stretch. Even so, the outcome was never in serious doubt after halftime.
Ole Miss (17-6, 6-4 SEC) came into Tuesday’s matchup having lost four of its last five games, though all of those defeats were against AP Top 25 teams. The Rebels defeated now-No. 3 Alabama 74-64 in Tuscaloosa on Jan. 14, the Crimson Tide’s only SEC loss and only home loss so far this season.
UK was a 5.5-point underdog in Oxford.
Kentucky will be back home this weekend, with South Carolina — the only winless team in SEC play — coming to Rupp Arena for a noon EST Saturday tipoff. The Gamecocks (10-12, 0-9 SEC) have already played six games against teams ranked in the top 20 since the league schedule began, and Saturday’s game will be their seventh such matchup.
South Carolina does not have a midweek game, so reigning SEC coach of the year Lamont Paris will bring his team to Lexington with a full week to plan for the Wildcats, who have lost two straight against the Gamecocks.
This story was originally published February 4, 2025 at 9:07 PM.
