Five things you need to know from No. 4 Kentucky’s ugly 85-65 loss to Ohio State
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Game day: Ohio State 85, No. 4 Kentucky 65
Click below for more of the Herald-Leader and Kentucky.com’s coverage of Saturday’s men’s basketball game between Kentucky and Ohio State in New York City.
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Five things you need to know from No. 4 Kentucky’s 85-65 loss to Ohio State in men’s college basketball’s CBS Sports Classic at Madison Square Garden in New York City:
1. A book on how to beat Kentucky. Prior to tipoff of the Kentucky-Ohio State game, CBS Sports men’s college hoops analyst Jay Wright — who knows a thing or two about how to win basketball games — opined that OSU’s path to victory was to slow the tempo and turn the game into a half-court grinder.
The former NCAA championship-winning Villanova coach added that no one knew how Kentucky would fare in such a game because no one had made the high-scoring Wildcats play that way yet in 2024-25.
Coach Jake Diebler’s Buckeyes proceeded to deploy that strategy to perfection.
In opening a 39-30 halftime lead, Ohio State walked the ball up the court. The Buckeyes worked the shot clock, forcing Kentucky into extended defensive possessions. When OSU caught the UK defense in a switch that created a disadvantageous matchup for the Cats, the Buckeyes drove the ball hard to the hoop.
That is how OSU shot 63 percent, 17 of 27, in half one.
Defensively, Ohio State picked up the Clemson model and roughed up UK physically. The Wildcats did not have much of a response.
An Amari Williams layup with nine minutes left in the first half and a Williams dunk that came 47 seconds before halftime were Kentucky’s only two field goals in the final 11:04 of the first half.
In half two, UK fell behind by 15, made a run and cut it to six, 51-45, on a conventional Otega Oweh 3-point play with 14:54 left.
However, OSU responded with a 5-0 run of its own and UK never threatened again.
The shooting stats were ugly for Kentucky. The Wildcats made only 17 of 57 shots, 29.8 percent. UK hit only 4 of 22 3-point shots, 18.2 percent. Meanwhile, Ohio State hit 30 of 53 shots overall (55.6).
Look, if someone had told you when the season started that Kentucky would make it to Christmas with wins over Duke, Gonzaga and Louisville and a 10-2 record, pretty much everyone reasonable would have taken that with glee.
Nevertheless, Kentucky is going to have to show moving forward it has an answer for the kind of game plan Ohio State utilized to such great effect in New York City.
2. Lamont Butler’s encore. The Kentucky point guard entered Saturday’s contest off the game of his life.
In UK’s 93-85 win over intrastate rival Louisville last Saturday, Butler, the super-senior transfer from San Diego State, hit 10 of 10 field goal attempts, all six of his 3-pointers and scored 33 points. He also grabbed three rebounds and dished out six assists.
Alas, the magic did not follow Butler to New York.
Butler fouled out with 1:43 left in the game and UK down 77-61.
The UK guard made only 1 of 7 shots, missed all three of his trey attempts and finished with four points, three rebounds, five assists and four turnovers.
In what was billed as a premier point guard matchup, Ohio State’s Bruce Thornton got much the best of the battle.
Thornton finished with 30 points and made 8 of 13 field-goal tries and 13 of 14 free throws.
3. Wildcats encounter an old friend. Aaron Bradshaw averaged 4.9 points and 3.3 rebounds last season for Kentucky in 26 games. After transferring from UK, the 7-foot-1, 215-pound forward is spending his sophomore season on the Ohio State roster.
Before Saturday, Bradshaw had not played since Nov. 19, when he scored six points and grabbed three rebounds in an 80-30 trouncing of Evansville.
Bradshaw returned against his old team with a flourish.
In 18 minutes of playing time Saturday, Bradshaw hit 5 of 6 shots and scored 11 points.
Bradshaw entered the game with 17:46 left in the first half and made an immediate impact.
The ex-Cat scored on a layup at 16:25 off a nifty feed from Bruce Thornton, then followed that with a contested jumper in the lane at 15:48.
Having established early confidence, Bradshaw went on to finish the first half with a team-high nine points on 4-of-4 shooting and made his only 3-point try.
In the run-up to the CBS Sports Classic, the Columbus Dispatch reported that Bradshaw is now “technically available to play” after he was not allowed “to participate in team activities for nearly a month” due to a university investigation into an alleged off-the-court incident.
In the four games in which he had appeared prior to Saturday, Bradshaw was averaging 7.8 points and 4.8 rebounds while shooting 37.9% on field goal attempts.
Against Kentucky, Bradshaw helped Ohio State win the points in the paint 36-24 and the bench points 26-11.
4. Ohio State continues to be a UK nemesis. With Ohio State’s upset win, the Buckeyes have now tied the all-time series with Kentucky at 11.
The Buckeyes are 3-0 vs. the Wildcats in CBS Sports Classic games.
In the last three meetings between the teams, OSU has beaten UK teams ranked No. 4 (2015-16), No. 6 (2019-20) and No. 4 (this year).
All-time, OSU and UK have played six times in NCAA Tournament contests and the Buckeyes are 5-1 in those games.
5. CBS Sports Classic all-time records. After North Carolina’s come-from-behind 76-74 win over UCLA and Ohio State’s blowout win over UK, these are the standings among the four teams that annually participate in the men’s college hoops doubleheader:
North Carolina 7-4, Ohio State 6-4, Kentucky 5-6, UCLA 3-7.
Ohio State and UCLA did not play in the 2021-22 CBS Sports Classic due to COVID-19 protocols.
This story was originally published December 21, 2024 at 8:28 PM.
