LEXINGTON — With less than a minute remaining in Saturday’s first half, Otega Oweh — as he’d already done five times to that point, four successfully — rose to let a 3-pointer fly through the air.
The ball didn’t get far.
Florida‘s Isaiah Brown blocked the shot, tipped it to himself and went the other way. There wasn’t much Oweh could do.
Besides, he’d already done so much.
Oweh accounted for more than half of Kentucky basketball‘s points — 17 of 32 — in the opening 20 minutes. One problem: He outscored the rest of his teammates by two. The other issue: Florida had 49 points at intermission.
It didn’t get much better until late in the second half, as the Wildcats couldn’t complete one of their patented comebacks and dropped their regular-season finale, 84-77, at Rupp Arena.
“We make poor decisions when we’re tired on the floor. We just do,” UK coach Mark Pope said. “We make poor decisions when we’re tired on the floor. So we’re trying to find out how to ameliorate that and fix it. And that’s been a problem for us the last couple games.”
The setback, in a game that was one-sided for most of the way, spoiled senior night for Kentucky (19-12, 10-8 SEC). It was merely an extension of recent dominance for Florida (25-6, 16-2), which capped the regular season on an 11-game win streak.
Its supremacy also speaks to the extent to which it pummeled Kentucky in both meetings this season.
The Gators never trailed in a 92-83 victory in Gainesville, Florida, on Feb. 14. They never trailed in Saturday’s wire-to-wire win, either.
Florida ran off 11 points before the hosts even got on the board. The Wildcats made a push, at least, cutting the deficit to one point on a pair of occasions just past the midway point of the first half. But once UK trimmed Florida’s advantage to 20-19, the visitors went on a 13-0 run in the next two minutes to put the game on ice.
“I think we played well against these guys,” Florida coach Todd Golden said. “Controlled the game — both games — from start to finish. So that’s our goal, regardless of who we’re playing against.”
After falling behind 68-48 with 9:43 left, Kentucky got as close as five points in the final minute. Oweh finished with a game-high 28 points and finished 8-of-8 at the foul line. The final margin of defeat, however, merely papered over what was a decisive win for the Gators.
All the Wildcats avoided on this day was the embarrassment of suffering a 20-point loss — it was trending that direction at multiple junctures of the second half — on senior day.
“The last 10 minutes, I didn’t think we handled their pressure very well,” Golden said. “We didn’t make enough winning plays in the last 10 minutes. It allowed them to have some hope, the last five minutes or so, but we did a good enough job.”
Golden is underselling his team’s performance a bit, but the standard is a lofty one for the Gators these days. They’re the defending national champions. And their bid for a repeat is on track: They won the SEC regular-season crown by three games over their closest competition. As the top seed in the conference tournament, they’ll have a double bye into the quarterfinals. Oh, and that’s an event Golden and Co. won last season, too, en route to the national title. Florida’s play since Jan. 1 has it in the running to earn a 1-seed for this season’s NCAA Tournament as well.
Kentucky couldn’t be further from that right now.
The best seed the Wildcats can hope for in the Big Dance is likely a 6. A double bye in the SEC Tournament? Please. UK is playing in Wednesday’s first round and will need five wins in five days to collect its first league tournament championship since 2018. And Florida’s sterling level of play notwithstanding, its roster also is in much better shape than Kentucky’s: The Gators had every scholarship player available Saturday; the Wildcats still are missing a trio of starters (point guard Jaland Lowe, who is done for the season, as well as wing Kam Williams and forward Jayden Quaintance). It can’t be disputed even with that triumvirate healthy, beating Florida still would entail an exemplary effort from Kentucky.
At this point, topping a team of the Gators’ caliber is the Wildcats’ only avenue of saving an otherwise underwhelming season. Even getting a chance against a squad of Florida’s standing would mean UK has outplayed its seed in the conference or NCAA tournament (and perhaps liberated itself from the game-to-game inconsistency that defined the winter). The bad news for Kentucky is it simply hasn’t proven up to the task of felling such clubs this season.
To wit: The Gators were No. 4 in the KenPom.com rankings entering Saturday. UK has faced two other teams in the KenPom top 10 this season: Michigan State (No. 9) and Gonzaga (No. 10).
Kentucky lost those two games by an average of 26 points.
Still, if one listens to the Wildcats, facing the Gators has been a valuable lesson. Even if it’s been painful. Twice.
“I feel like we are not far away,” said sophomore forward Andrija Jelavić, who had seven points, four rebounds and two assists along with a block and a steal Saturday. “If we can have our concentration the whole game, I feel like we can be a problem for anyone — also the (teams) ranked top-five, top-10.
“If we can play our best, everyone should be afraid of us.”
We’ll see soon enough whether Jelavić’s assessment is sound.
Until Kentucky can provide evidence to the contrary, don’t expect the nation’s most vaunted teams to start shaking in their sneakers just yet.
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball vs Florida score, Gators spoil senior day for UK