MILWAUKEE, Wis. — No. 3 Kentucky men’s basketball did something its fans aren’t used to in recent memory and defeated No. 6 Illinois 84-75 in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament inside Fiserv Forum.
The result will see the Cats advance to the Sweet Sixteen for the first time since 2019 — six seasons ago.
Looking to build off of Head Coach Mark Pope’s first ever NCAA Tournament win — the Wildcats bested Troy in the first round on Friday — Kentucky marched out a familiar starting lineup of Otega Oweh, Lamont Butler, Andrew Carr, Amari Williams and Koby Brea.
Kentucky fans in attendance, who were largely outnumbered by the Illini faithful, were treated to the quick addition of Collin Chandler to the lineup and the freshman from Utah made a quick impact, nailing a 3-pointer to kick off a 9-0 scoring run to put UK up 13-5.
Brandon Garrison, Trent Noah and Ansley Almonor would join the lineup before long as well as the Cats continued to hold the advantage.
Despite struggling showings from Oweh and Williams, Kentucky would get up by as many as 12 points on the Illini.
From there, however, Kentucky would begin to struggle offensively and Illinois would get as close as three before 10 first-half points from Butler would help UK to hold a five-point advantage at the break.
Back out for the second half, Kentucky came out firing, scoring eight straight to extend the lead to its largest point up to that point. A thunderous dunk by Williams would make the advantage 15 with 17 minutes to play before Illinois would score its first bucket of the half.
Despite stronger second-half play from Oweh and Williams, however, the second half would not be as simple as a UK blowout as the Fighting Illini awoke, nailing big shots to get back within single digits.
The Cats kept their composure, however, erupting for a scoring frenzy that pushed Brea past 20 points in the contest and extended the lead to a new peak of 16 points.
Unwilling to go down without a fight, Illinois clawed back, getting back within 10 points with 3:21 to play.
The lead would even shrink into single digits as crunch time drew near.
Kentucky would manage to do enough, however, that it held its lead and forced the Illini into fouling. From there, despite more drama than should have been necessary, Kentucky was able to lock up the win and “survive and advance.”
With the win, Kentucky will advance to the Sweet Sixteen to face off against No. 2 Tennessee for the third time this season. The contest will take place inside Lucas Oil Stadium. A time is TBD.
