NEW YORK CITY – No. 4 Kentucky men’s basketball was defeated 85-65 by Ohio State inside Madison Square Garden in New York City as part of the 2024 CBS Sports Classic.
The loss marked the second of the season for the Wildcats after they were stunned in Clemson by the Tigers to start the month.
Entering the contest on the back of far-from-perfect home wins over Colgate and in-state rival Louisville, Kentucky marched out a familiar starting lineup consisting of Otega Oweh, Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson, Andrew Carr and Amari Williams. Interestingly, on the Ohio State roster was former Wildcat Aaron Bradshaw, who spent his freshman 2023-24 season in Lexington.
Things remained close early, with Kentucky, ranked within the top five, struggled to create separation from the unranked Buckeyes. By the first media timeout, both teams had less than 10 points with only one separating them.
Going to its bench, Kentucky opted to lean on some freshmen, inserting Lyon County’s Travis Perry and Mark Pope’s first freshman commit, Collin Chandler, into the lineup.
With nearly a quarter played, both teams found themselves dead even at 16-16.
From there, Kentucky would begin to struggle, even, at one point, going on an eight-minute field goal drought, relying purely on free throws to prevent the Buckeyes from creating insurmountable separation.
Ultimately, by the time halftime did roll around, Kentucky found itself down nine points, trailing 39-30.
Coming back out for the second half, things didn’t get much better for the Wildcats, who, before the first media timeout, trailed by as many as 15 points.
Despite that, Kentucky showed life, rattling off a 6-0 scoring run to cut the gap in half and force an Ohio State timeout.
Unfortunately for the Cats, the Buckeyes came alive out of the timeout, quickly extending the gap back to 12-13.
The lead would then return to its peak of 15 before Robinson was able to hit a 3-pointer to end yet another UK scoring drought.
Kentucky would continue to fight, cutting the gap down to single digits repeatedly, but could never quite get over the hump, with the Buckeyes hanging on every time.
As if to add punctuation to the win, Ohio State would begin adding onto its lead, stretching the largest lead of the night up to 16. It was at that point that UK’s point guard, Butler, fouled out and Robinson would soon follow. The final gap would resemble a blowout.
The former Cat Bradshaw would perform well in the game, logging 11 points and shooting 5-6 from the field to help secure the Buckeye victory.
With the result, Kentucky will conclude its 2024 calendar year back at home on Tuesday, Dec. 31, against Brown. Tipoff against the Bears on New Year’s Eve is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPNU.
