Kentucky falls short against another marquee foe. North Carolina beat UK in Rupp

Ben Roberts, Lexington Herald-Leader on Dec 3, 2025

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In their first big game of the season inside Rupp Arena, the Kentucky Wildcats fell short against yet another marquee opponent.

The No. 18 Cats lost 67-64 to 16th-ranked North Carolina in Lexington on Tuesday night, falling to 5-3 on the season.

Coach Mark Pope’s team was in desperate need of big-time victory after dropping its first two marquee games on the 2025-26 schedule: a 96-88 loss at Louisville on Nov. 11 and an 83-66 drubbing at the hands of Michigan State two weeks ago in Madison Square Garden.

On their third try, the Wildcats fell short yet again.

Kentucky took a tie game at halftime and turned it into a six-point advantage before the first TV timeout of the second half, and while the Cats largely controlled the final period, they never managed to pull away.

Backup center Brandon Garrison hit a big 3-pointer with 13:08 left to give the Cats a 48-44 lead. After that, Kentucky missed 13 shots in a row, and North Carolina — while dealing with its own offensive struggles — finally took a 58-57 lead with a little more than three minutes left.

Malachi Moreno hit two free throws to put Kentucky ahead 62-61 with 1:41 remaining, and the Cats got two stops on the other end, but they couldn’t corral the rebound on either occasion — a problem all night long — and UNC guard Derek Dixon hit a 3-pointer to put the Heels up 64-62.

Collin Chandler answered that with a strong drive to force a 64-all tie.

Dixon put North Carolina back ahead 66-64 with a drive of his own on the other end, and UK called timeout with 12.4 seconds left to set up the ending.

Chandler’s shot attempt at the rim didn’t go, the Tar Heels got the rebound, and — after a free throw by Caleb Wilson with 2.8 seconds left to set the final score — UK didn’t get off another shot.

Otega Oweh led the Wildcats with 16 points. Chandler added 12 points. Moreno tallied eight points and a team-high nine rebounds.

North Carolina star freshman Caleb Wilson — a longtime UK recruiting target — finished the game with 15 points and 12 rebounds. He was 5 of 19 from the field.

The first five-plus minutes of the game couldn’t have gone much better for Kentucky.

The Wildcats jumped out to a 10-4 lead going into the first TV timeout of the night — on a 6-0 run punctuated by a fast-break dunk courtesy of Kam Williams — and they built that advantage through a series of strong drives to the hoop and solid defense on the other end.

While the two teams huddled for the first time of the night, a Rupp Arena crowd that was already hot well before tipoff erupted into perhaps the loudest ovation of the season so far when new UK football coach Will Stein was introduced to the fans at midcourt.

From there, it devolved into an ugly display of basketball.

The Cats coughed up their early lead in just 94 seconds — North Carolina tying the game at 11-all with 13:04 left in the first half — and the two teams were never separated by more than one possession for the rest of the period.

Kentucky missed all eight of its 3-point attempts in the first half — the first time the Cats had failed to score from the perimeter in the first half during the Pope era — but went 15 of 22 on 2-pointers.

North Carolina, meanwhile, shot just 12 for 32 from the field in the first half but came up with 11 offensive rebounds on those 20 misses and outscored the Cats 9-4 on second-chance points.

That all set the stage for a second half in which Kentucky continued to struggle on the boards and from behind the perimeter. The Wildcats ended up going 1 for 13 on 3-pointers.

The Cats won’t get much of a break before their next marquee game.

Kentucky will be back on the court Friday night, when the Cats are set to play No. 11 Gonzaga at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The game is set for a 7 p.m. EST start on ESPN2.

The Zags won their first seven games — including double-digit victories over Creighton and Alabama — before suffering a 101-61 loss to now-No. 3 Michigan last week.

Gonzaga will have nine days between that defeat and the matchup with Kentucky, which overcame an 18-point deficit in the second half to beat the Zags 90-89 in overtime last season in Seattle. This will be the fourth game in a six-game series between UK and Gonzaga.

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