Boy, was it ugly. But UK found a way to get a win it had to have
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Kentucky overcame turnovers and poor shooting to win at South Carolina.
- Denzel Aberdeen led with 19 points and committed zero turnovers.
- Win likely assures Kentucky of an at-large NCAA Tournament bid in 2026.
It was a bizzaro kind of night for Kentucky.
UK brought its three-game losing streak south to an arena that has long served as a haunted house for the Wildcats. Kentucky found itself playing in a half-empty Colonial Life Arena with roughly the same amount of game atmosphere one finds in a library.
The Wildcats missed two dunks, had a third dunk attempt rejected at the rim by a spectacular South Carolina blocked shot and had a 7-footer miss an uncontested layup.
After Kentucky coach Mark Pope spent his pregame radio show rhapsodizing on the importance of cutting back on turnovers, UK lost the ball nine times in the first half alone while en route to 15 miscues.
Otega Oweh — for whom double-figure scoring games in his UK career have been only slightly less certain than death or taxes — shot 3 of 13 and was held below 10 points (he had eight) for the first time this season.
Yet, up against all that, the Wildcats (18-10, 9-6 SEC) dug into their reservoir of grit and pulled out a 72-63 win over South Carolina (12-16, 3-12 SEC) that was immensely important to the UK season.
“Shout out to my team; we fought through adversity tonight,” Kentucky forward Mo Diouabte said afterward.
My guess is that the win over the Gamecocks likely assures the Wildcats of an at-large bid to the 2026 NCAA Tournament even if the Cats lose out the rest of the way.
Not that I am recommending UK test the above thesis to find out.
With South Carolina throwing all its defensive energy into bottling up Oweh and not allowing him to drive downhill, Kentucky got vital offensive contributions from various sources, including some surprising ones.
On a night when shot making was a challenge for UK (26 of 66 field goals, 7 of 25 3-pointers), senior lead guard Denzel Aberdeen was the exception. The transfer from Florida hit 6 of 12 overall, 4 of 6 from behind the 3-point arc, and finished with a game-high 19 points.
Aberdeen also sat out UK’s turnover party, committing none in 37 minutes of court time.
“Really important,” UK coach Mark Pope said of Aberdeen’s performance. “We kind of felt as a staff that DA was due, he was just due for a (big) game. He’s just been a little quieter, and he actually bailed us out. He was terrific (at) shot making. He was really, really solid defensively. For the whole night, he had a terrific game.”
Kentucky power forwards Andrija Jelavic and Dioubate took advantage of the ample defensive attention on Oweh to combine for 23 points.
Dioubate scored 10 of his 12 in the second half to help UK stave off multiple South Carolina runs. Jelavic had six in half one and five after halftime.
“I think we definitely got a little bit surprised when they started blitzing us on the pick and roll from the very beginning, especially with Otega and Denzel,” Jelavic said. “So that’s why we didn’t give up the ball fast enough. But we adapted to that really, really quick, and when we did, we did a short roll, cut and everything was open for us.”
Pope entered the South Carolina game with his wallet a little lighter than it had previously been. The Southeastern Conference announced earlier Tuesday that it had fined the UK coach $25,000 “for post-game conduct and comments related to officiating” in the immediate aftermath of the Wildcats’ 75-74 loss at Auburn last Saturday night.
In that game, Kentucky was up one when it was on the wrong side of a controversial officiating call in the final 15 seconds which changed possession and, eventually, led to Auburn scoring the game-winning basket with 1.2 seconds remaining.
I wondered how the UK players would respond on Tuesday night. Would they rally around their coach with their performance?
“We love him, man,” Aberdeen said of Pope in a postgame interview with the SEC Network. “He goes hard for us, and we know we got his back, also.”
Does that mean Aberdeen planned to chip in and help Pope pay his fine?
“No, not at all,” Aberdeen said, laughing.
Given that Pope is earning $5.25 million to coach Kentucky in 2025-26, he will probably be OK covering the 25 Gs.
As for Pope’s team, with regular season games remaining with Vanderbilt, at Texas A&M and vs. defending national champion Florida, plus the SEC Tournament, UK still has multiple chances to boost its NCAA Tournament seeding.
At South Carolina, Kentucky came into a listless atmosphere, at an arena where it had lost three of its previous four and six of its prior 11, and the Wildcats drew on their gumption to surmount repeated game challenges.
Whatever else one thinks of the 2025-26 Cats, a team with myriad imperfections, they have persevered through multiple tests and trials.
If nothing else, this latest display of Kentucky competitive grit deserves a tip of the cap.
