After losing to top 25 teams Louisville and Michigan State early on this season, the 18th-ranked Kentucky men’s basketball team lost to a third consecutive ranked squad on Tuesday with a 67-64 home defeat at the hands of No. 16 North Carolina in the ACC/SEC Challenge.
Both squads didn’t play great. But one statistic killed the Wildcats.
Coach Mark Pope’s club went 10:25 without a field goal in the second half to achieve their longest scoring drought in at least eight seasons.
Kentucky jumped in front 59-58 on a layup by Otega Oweh with 2:40 left to end the cold spell. It didn’t matter.
The Tar Heels’ Derek Dixon buried a three-pointer to put North Carolina ahead 64-62 with 53 seconds remaining. UK’s Colin Chandler converted a layup to make it 64-64 with 36 seconds on the clock but Dixon hurt the Cats once more with a go-ahead bucket with 16 seconds left to put UNC up 66-64.
Chandler missed a layup on the other end of the floor and North Carolina left Lexington victorious.
Kentucky made just one of their 13 attempts from beyond-the-arc. They lost despite holding the Tar Heels to 41 percent shooting while registering a 43 percent clip from the field themselves. North Carolina outrebounded the Wildcats 41-30.
Oweh paced UK with 16 points while grabbing four rebounds and two assists. Chandler (12 points, two rebounds, one assist) and Denzel Aberdeen (10, four, four) also scored in double digits for the Wildcats.
Henri Veesaar (17 points, 13 rebounds) and Caleb Wilson (15, 12) led the Tar Heels with a double-double each. The latter logged six assists, and UNC’s Luka Bogavac scored 12 points and knocked down three triples while adding four rebounds and two assists.
Kentucky will look to finally get a marquee win on their resume Friday when they face 11th-ranked Gonzaga at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville for Music City Madness. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on ESPN2.
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