No. 6 Kentucky men’s basketball suffered its third defeat of the season against Texas A&M in overtime inside Reed Arena in College Station, Texas, on Saturday.
Antonio Reeves led the Cats in scoring while D.J. Wagner followed close behind with 22 and 18 points on the day respectively, but despite the efforts the Cats fell 97-92.
The Wildcats entered the game 2-0 in conference play with a six-game winning streak, most recently defeating Missouri 90-77 inside Rupp Arena in their SEC home opener.
Looking to continue their winning streak, the Cats rolled out a familiar starting lineup of Justin Edwards, Reeves, Wagner, Aaron Bradshaw and Tre Mitchell.
Getting underway, Reed Arena was less than favorable for Kentucky, similar to Exactech Arena in Gainesville, with the Cats finding themselves trailing after eight minutes of play.
Kentucky never went away, but continued to trail throughout the first half with a hot Aggies squad having its best shooting game in conference play.
While the Cats would briefly regain the lead, the home side would regain the advantage before halftime.
Starting the second half, Kentucky quickly regained the lead and held it after four minutes of play.
The Aggies kept at it, however, and eventually tied the game with a break-away steal and dunk with just over seven minutes remaining.
The effort would pay off when, with under six minutes to play, the Aggies took the lead from Kentucky before Reed Sheppard could re-tie it at 74.
The tie would not last as the Aggies would regain the advantage, extending it up to five points with under three minutes to play.
The Cats hung close but all hope seemed to be lost when a brutal turnover saw the Aggies lead 89-87 with less than one minute to play, but key free throws by Sheppard saw Kentucky force overtime.
Unfortunately for the UK fans in attendance, the Cats went ice cold in overtime, not scoring a single point until over four minutes had passed. To make matters worse, the first points for Kentucky ended up having to come from the free throw line.
With a nonexistent offense in the extra period of play, Kentucky was unable to overcome the Aggies a second time and suffered defeat.
Kentucky will return to action on Tuesday, Jan. 17, inside Rupp Arena against the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Tip-off against the Bulldogs is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPN2.
