No. 8 Kentucky women’s basketball (19-4, 8-3 SEC) fell in a physically and mentally taxing battle to No. 3 Texas (25-2, 11-1 SEC) 67-49, ending its 12-game home winning streak.

The Wildcats entered the game on the heels of a tough loss at Ole Miss, while the Longhorns entered white-hot after they had upset No. 2 South Carolina just a day before the Cats’ loss.

Despite Kentucky winning the opening tipoff, Texas got off to a great start. A mishandled ball by Clara Strack allowed Texas’ Madison Booker to get an early steal that led to a layup by Taylor Jones, putting the Longhorns up in under a minute.

From tipoff, it was clear that the game would be a defensive battle. Texas was led by Rori Harmon, who not only is currently named to the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Watch List, but is also named to the 2025 Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year watchlist alongside Kentucky’s star point-guard Georgia Amoore.

Along with Harmon, Texas also found defensive success in Jones. At 6-foot-4, Jones became one of the biggest players Strack had faced all season. 

The game started sloppily for the Cats. Whether it was the struggle in offensive rebounding, mishandling the ball resulting in turnovers, simply being unable to find the net or even just inbounding the ball, Kentucky looked off its mark.

The first period was a back-and-forth battle in the paint, which was expected as Texas had one of the lowest 3-point attempts numbers in the country and had little success in its few attempts.

Texas only slightly edged UK 16-14 heading into the second quarter as Amoore scored seven points and Teonni Key had five assists.

The second quarter was an offensive struggle, and it was as if the basket was closed for the Cats as they shot 3-13 (23.1%) and, more shockingly, went 0-4 from the three, a typically strong point for the team.

The Longhorns took advantage of Kentucky’s offensive struggles with an intense 17-point period led by Booker, who has been Texas’ knight in shining armor offensively this season.

With that, Kentucky went into the half down 33-25 and desperately needed a momentum shift and shots to drain the basket.

Key got the Cats on the board first to start the third quarter; however, they continued making sloppy mistakes after that. 

For the second time, an inbounding penalty gave Texas two easy points. It extended the Longhorns’ scoring run to 6-0, leading Kenny Brooks to take his first timeout of the game.  

The Cats continued to have opportunities but could not capitalize on them. Nothing was going in their favor, whether it was rebounds or open 3-point shots not falling.

Texas scored seven points off turnovers in the first six minutes of play, giving it a double-digit lead of 44-30 heading into another timeout. 

It seemed like a now-or-never situation: either Kentucky would come out of the break and find points, or Texas would run away with the win. 

Unfortunately for Kentucky, its attempts to come back continued to fail. Texas continued to extend its lead as the Cats found little response. Despite the offensive success, the team saw that the point deficit had become too great.

Kentucky ended the quarter down 57-35, shooting 4-13 (30.8 %) and 1-5 from the three (20%).

The fourth quarter started with two layups made by Kentucky. Even with Strack fouling out of the game within the first minute, the Cats slowly started chipping away at the Longhorns’ lead.

Thanks to a 10-0 scoring run led by Amoore and Lexi Blue making 3-pointers, the Cats were back in a comeback situation. They had all of Big Blue Nation back on its feet, forcing Texas to take its first time out.

As soon as Kentucky cut the lead to 12, its glimmer of hope for a comeback ended as fast as it started. Texas was right back in it, responding with an 8-0 scoring run with six points coming off of Kentucky turnovers.

Even with their offensive efforts, the Wildcats did not have enough momentum to overcome the drastic point deficit, and Texas closed out the game within the final few minutes. The buzzer gave Kentucky its second-straight conference loss of the season, and the team now sits at 19-4 (8-3 SEC). 

Kentucky will return to Historic Memorial Coliseum on Sunday, Feb. 16, as the Wildcats look to secure another win against the Georgia Bulldogs with tipoff set for 2 p.m. and the game will air live on the SEC Network+.