No. 8 Kentucky men’s basketball defeated No. 11 Texas A&M 81-69 in a top 15 SEC matchup on Tuesday, improving to 3-1 in a loaded Southeastern Conference.
The Cats entered the matchup on the back of a Quad-1 road win over former No. 14 Mississippi State in Starkville. The win ended a two-game road trip for UK that started in Athens, Georgia.
Marching out a familiar starting lineup of Otega Oweh, Lamont Butler, Jaxson Robinson, Andrew Carr and Amari Williams, Kentucky made the first basket of the night early courtesy of Carr.
From there, however, despite Robinson putting the team on his back with five of UK’s first seven points, a poor offensive display from both sides followed.
After nearly a quarter of basketball had been played, both teams remained tied at 11.
Texas A&M was then able to go on a run thanks to a lengthy scoring drought from the Wildcats, but a Class ‘B’ technical foul on the Aggie bench would stifle the run and help the Cats to regain their footing.
Despite both teams continuing to struggle to find points, each found themselves knotted up at 32 each during the final minute of the first half.
After the defense forced a turnover, however, Robinson drained a 3-pointer just prior to the buzzer to give the Cats an advantage at the break.
Back out for the second half of action, UK was on a mission, forcing an early A&M timeout after less than two minutes had been played. After long, UK had outscored A&M by eight, a margin it would keep mostly steady for the bulk of the second half, though it did briefly possess as much as a 13-point advantage.
The Aggies would look to make a run three quarters of the way through the second half, but were forced to call another timeout after a jumper by Robinson brought the lead back up to double figures. The star cracked the 20-point mark.
A flagrant foul committed by the Aggies on Brandon Garrison would allow the Cats to push the lead back to double figures after A&M had gotten a tad closer, and, from there, Kentucky was able to coast to yet another Quad-1 and AP Top 25 win.
With the result, Kentucky will look ahead to Saturday when it hosts the No. 4 Alabama Crimson Tide into Rupp Arena for another Quad-1 SEC matchup. Tipoff against the Tide is scheduled for noon ET and will air live on ESPN.
