No. 17 Kentucky men’s basketball conquered Oklahoma 83-82 inside the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, Oklahoma, on Wednesday.
The game marked Kentucky’s first ever regulation program contest in the state of Oklahoma and saw UK maintain its all-time undefeated record against Oklahoma behind a career-high 28 points from Otega Oweh.
Kentucky traveled to the Sooner State fresh off a fast-paced loss in Tuscaloosa against No. 4 Alabama.
Marching into the Sooners’ home turf, Mark Pope brought out a starting lineup of Andrew Carr, Amari Williams, Oweh and the returning duo of Jaxson Robinson and Lamont Butler, both of whom had been out with injury from the Cats’ recent contests.
Things got off to an extremely sloppy start for both teams committed seven turnovers by the time just nine total points had been scored.
With such a poor start, it wasn’t long until both Brandon Garrison, Ansley Almonor, Travis Perry and Koby Brea were inserted into the UK lineup.
The Cats would pull away early, using an 8-0 scoring run, but the Sooners caught fire soon after and forced Pope to call a timeout.
Kentucky’s final usual suspects, Trent Noah and Collin Chandler, would see the floor for the first time after that point with Kentucky holding a steady lead for much of the first half.
Oklahoma would come back to tie the game at 36, both the Cats would regain the advantage and complete the first half trailing for just three minutes.
Kentucky would have its first scare less than five minutes into the second half, but it wouldn’t come from an Oklahoma scoring run — it would come from the announcement that, having aggravated his injured wrist, Robinson was questionable to return to the contest and remained on the bench with his wrist wrapped.
Despite that, Kentucky jumped on the Sooners early in the half, outscoring OU 11-6 by the first media timeout.
From there, however, Oklahoma returned to form and nailed its shots from the field while Kentucky went cold, allowing the Sooners back within one point and forcing another timeout from Pope.
The momentum did not shift as Pope had hoped, however, and within a blink the game was tied at 60.
To make matters worse, with Robinson still out, Oklahoma rattled off an 8-0 scoring run to take a five-point lead in the contest.
Unwilling to just give in, Kentucky, fueled by former Sooner Oweh, re-tied the game at 71 with a chance to regain the advantage with just under seven minutes to play.
Oklahoma refused to go away either, however, and as missed free throws continued to plague the Wildcats, a second disaster struck with just over four minutes remaining: Butler fouled out.
With the game on the line it was Oweh who came through, silencing the crowd in his former arena and making the game winner while assisting Garrison in the game-clinching block.
Kentucky will return to action for a huge matchup against No. 1 Auburn inside Rupp Arena on Saturday, March 1. Tipoff against the Tigers in UK’s penultimate home game is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET and will air live on ABC.
