Kentucky’s seniors got one last win in Rupp. They’ll be remembered for something more
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Game day: No. 19 Kentucky 95, LSU 64
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Tuesday night’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and LSU in Rupp Arena.
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The first Senior Night celebration of the Mark Pope era couldn’t be contained to the pregame festivities.
Once the actual basketball began Tuesday night in Rupp Arena, the good vibes that started during the ceremony honoring Kentucky’s veterans boiled over onto the court.
The 19th-ranked Wildcats demolished LSU in the final home game of the 2024-25 season, running the Tigers out of Rupp to the tune of a 95-64 victory. LSU scored the first two points of the game. UK scored the next 15.
That 15-0 run needed just a little more than three minutes to materialize. It started with Koby Brea knocking down a 3-pointer in his final home game as a Wildcat — a common sight around these parts over the past four months. It ended with Lamont Butler throwing down a ferocious dunk in transition — a welcome sight for a player who’s been battling injuries since December.
By that point, there were still nearly 15 minutes to go in the first half, but the outcome was never in question the rest of the way. The remainder of the night was more of a celebration than an actual contest. Everyone got in on the fun.
Andrew Carr also knocked down a 3-pointer in that 15-0 flurry and finished with eight points and six rebounds. Amari Williams completed a 3-point play during the run and ended up with nine points, six rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Brea, Butler, Carr and Williams were all in the starting lineup for the final home game of their college careers. Ansley Almonor, the other active Senior Night participant Tuesday night, came off the bench.
Almonor’s 3-pointer right around the midway point of the first half gave Kentucky a 21-12 lead and jump-started a 12-0 run that sent LSU further down the path of embarrassment. He missed a 3-pointer about a minute later. It was the final miss of his Rupp Arena career.
Coming into this game off three straight scoreless performances — Almonor was 0-for-1 from deep in each of them — the Wildcat made his next five shots. In his final home game, he finished 6-for-7 from the field and 3-for-4 from long range. He also scored a season-high 15 points.
“My goodness, what a season he’s had,” Pope said. “For a guy that never in his wildest dreams thought he’d be wearing a Kentucky jersey. And you think about the huge, impactful moments that he’s had in games for us. And he’s going to be big down the stretch. You see it all the time. He had three or four really quiet, subpar games — for his standard that he’s set. And, sometimes, all the weight of this thing starts to get on your shoulders. And he did a great job tonight just casting it out and just kind of saying, ‘I’m gonna go be a baller, man.’ Like, ‘Make, miss — I’m gonna go play.’
“And I thought his energy and intensity was great tonight. I thought he was really special. He’s been great all season.”
Almonor’s sacrifice — going from a big fish in a little pond at Fairleigh Dickinson to a role player at Kentucky — has defined Pope’s team at certain points along the way this season. How fitting that, in his last home game as part of this team, Almonor led the seniors in scoring.
Once it was officially over — the game had been decided long before the final buzzer — Kentucky’s seniors walked along the sideline and the baseline passing out high-fives and smiles to the fans near the court, just like they have all season long.
As the UK band played “My Old Kentucky Home,” the Wildcats disappeared through the tunnel to the home locker room one last time.
But before they left, the six players who exhausted their eligibility this year — the five who played Tuesday night, plus Jaxson Robinson, who will have to watch the rest of UK’s games from the sidelines with a season-ending wrist injury — got on the microphone and thanked the Kentucky fans for supporting them.
A few minutes later, some of the younger guys on UK’s team thanked those seniors for what they meant to them and their own futures in college basketball.
“I think it’s great for me and my career,” freshman Collin Chandler said. “But also, for the program’s. The things that they’ve taught us — for the people that are going to be here next year — their DNA as players, I think, is going to run through this program for a long time. It’s going to exist because of what they’ve instilled in us and taught us as young guys. And so we’re grateful for them. I’m personally grateful for them and for what they’ve taught me, but for what they’ve given this program, it’s been a great gift.”
Chandler scored a season-high 11 points and went 3-for-6 from 3-point range. Brandon Garrison, a sophomore, tied a season high with 15 points. Both could be building blocks for Kentucky’s future.
A major part of the Wildcats’ present has been Otega Oweh, and he was again Tuesday night. Oweh scored 15 points in that dominant first half — the Cats led 50-23 at halftime — and ended up with 24 points, the second-highest total of his college career, plus eight rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Oweh is a junior and — if he comes back to Kentucky for one more season — would be the de facto leader of the next group of Wildcats. He nodded along resolutely to a question about such a scenario, and he talked about how much he’d learned from the leaders on this UK team.
“They did a good job all year, just setting the tone, setting the culture,” Oweh said, before adding one more thought on the legacy of this particular group of Wildcats. “And those are the guys that I feel like are always gonna be remembered here, because they really set the culture.”
After Almonor and Brea and Butler and Carr and Robinson and Williams were done saluting the Rupp Arena crowd after Tuesday night’s win, Pope grabbed the mic to get in the last word.
“BBN!” the UK coach exclaimed, 29 years and two days after he played his final game in the building as a Wildcat. “On behalf of the seniors and our whole team, thank you guys for an incredible, incredible time here in Rupp Arena.”
“Thank you for coming back!” one fan standing courtside yelled.
Pope listed off some of the biggest wins of the season. His Cats beat Duke. They came back from 16 points down at halftime to beat Gonzaga in Seattle. Two wins that didn’t happen in Lexington but had those back home glued to their TVs — staying up late and falling in love with the Cats all over again.
“Of course, we beat Louisville,” he reminded Rupp, to another chorus of cheers.
“But we’ve got a lot more to do,” Pope finished. “So we’ll see you in Missouri on Saturday. We’ll see you guys in Nashville …”
And, here, Pope kept talking, but whatever came out of his mouth was indecipherable as those cheers reached their crescendo. One last Rupp Arena roar to end this Kentucky basketball season.
This story was originally published March 4, 2025 at 11:46 PM.
