Kentucky basketball collapses before halftime, loses at Texas A&M
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- UK basketball lost at Texas A&M on Tuesday night at Reed Arena in College Station, Texas.
- The Wildcats lost to the Aggies, 96-85.
- Kentucky is now 19-11 overall and 10-7 in SEC games.
Kentucky basketball let a double-digit first-half lead slip away, fast, in its final road game of the 2025-26 season.
Texas A&M emerged with a 96-85 win over Kentucky on Tuesday night at Reed Arena, using a monstrous run late in the opening period to turn the tables on the Cats.
The result means Mark Pope’s Kentucky program — now 19-11 on the season and 10-7 in SEC games — still hasn’t surpassed its SEC wins total from last season. The Cats went 10-8 in league games during the 2024-25 campaign.
Texas A&M, which entered Tuesday’s game near the NCAA Tournament bubble, is now 20-10 overall, 10-7 in league play and feeling a whole lot better about its March Madness chances.
With 8:05 to play in the first half, it was all going well for Kentucky basketball.
UK had opened up a 30-18 lead on host Texas A&M via a Malachi Moreno layup.
But like so many positive moments for UK this season, the good feeling was fleeting.
The Aggies responded with a 13-0 run to claim a 31-30 advantage with 4:19 to go until the break. That became part of a larger 27-3 run for A&M over the final 7:30 of the opening period. The Aggies claimed a 45-33 lead at halftime.
This marked the 14th time in 23 games against high-major opponents this season that UK has trailed at half.
Kentucky missed 11 of its final 12 shots to close the first half as A&M’s aggressive defensive style under first-year head coach Bucky McMillan paid dividends: At the break, the Aggies led 10-0 in points off turnovers, capitalizing on seven Kentucky giveaways in the first 20 minutes.
A&M finished with a sizable 18-10 advantage in points off giveaways. UK finished the contest with 12 turnovers compared to A&M’s seven. UK senior guard Denzel Aberdeen still managed to have a clean night, logging an impressive eight assists against just one turnover, that coming in the closing seconds of the game.
The Aggies rattled off a 9-3 scoring run within the first two minutes of the second half. A&M’s 12-point halftime lead swelled to as large as 21 points midway through the second half.
From the 7:29 mark of the first half to the 14:28 mark of the second half, Texas A&M outscored Kentucky 44-11.
Texas A&M ranks as one of the SEC’s top 3-point shooting teams this season, and that was on full display Tuesday. The Aggies entered the contest shooting 36.5% from deep — a top-50 mark nationally — and connected on 13 of 28 attempts (46.4%) from beyond the arc against the Cats. That’s even more impressive considering that A&M began the game just 1 for 9 from 3-point range.
The Aggies benefitted from strong distance shooting efforts from Ruben Dominguez (five made 3s), Rylan Griffen (four) and Zach Clemence (three). Griffen had 21 points. Dominguez added 17 points and Clemence 13.
The Aggies also got 14 points from Rashaun Agee and 12 points from Pop Isaacs.
Otega Oweh had 24 points to lead UK, and junior forward Mo Dioubate added 19, his best scoring game at UK against a high-major opponent. No other UK player cleared double figures in the scoring column.
Texas A&M got off to a 7-1 start in SEC play this season, but McMillan’s Aggies had lost six of their past eight games entering Tuesday’s contest with Kentucky.
Entering Tuesday, the aggregate projections at BracketMatrix.com had Texas A&M as the final 10 seed in the NCAA Tournament field. The Aggies have made three straight trips to March Madness, but all of those came under former coach Buzz Williams. A&M closes the regular season with a game at LSU on Saturday night.
BracketMatrix had Kentucky as a 6 seed in March Madness prior to Tuesday’s contest. UK’s regular season finale is 4 p.m. Saturday at Rupp Arena against No. 5 Florida. The defending national champion Gators blasted Mississippi State by 34 points on Tuesday night in their penultimate regular season contest.
Florida topped UK 92-83 on Feb. 14 in Gainesville. That game — a wire-to-wire victory for Todd Golden’s group — was played with first place in the SEC standings on the line.
Saturday’s game between the Cats and Gators will be UK’s Senior Day. Starting guards Aberdeen and Oweh, as well as reserve guards Walker Horn and Zach Tow, will be honored.
Final stats: Texas A&M 96, Kentucky 85
This story was originally published March 3, 2026 at 9:32 PM.
