Kansas Stops Wildcats 77-68

Kentucky and Kansas, two of college basketball's all-time winningest programs, battled Saturday night before a sellout crowd of 20,418 at Rupp Arena. ESPN's College GameDay crew was on hand to cover the festive event after spending the early part of the day in Knoxville. (Photo by Jamie H. Vaught)

By Jamie H. Vaught

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Both teams saw their streaks end Saturday night at Rupp Arena.

It was Kentucky which dropped a 77-68 decision, snapping its four-game winning streak, while No. 9 Kansas ended its three-game losing streak.

Toward the end of the second half, the Wildcats, now 14-7 overall, had a chance to win. Kentucky managed to get within two points on four occasions but Kansas replied with baskets each time. With the Jayhawks, 17-4, ahead at 64-62, they gunned in three 3-pointers to stretch the lead to 73-66 with three minutes left and they held on to win.

Despite the loss, Kentucky still leads the series with an all-time record of 24-11.

The Wildcats, who are one of the nation's top offensive rebounding teams, were limited to four offensive rebounds. In addition, Kentucky was outscored 11-0 on second-chance points.

"(It was a) hard fought game," said UK coach John Calipari. "Give them credit. They were physical. Their ball screen was really physical, knocked us off point a few times, they were coming right at it that way but they deserved to win the game because they made three threes down the stretch. You've got to make those kind of plays, and they made them."

Oscar Tshiebwe led the Wildcats with 18 points and nine rebounds. Jacob Toppin added 14 points, his fourth straight double-figure performance. Cason Wallace, who had a team-high five assists, had 14 points. Antonio Reeves came off the bench to score 10 points.

While UK hit 49 percent of its shots (compared to Kansas' 49.2 percent), it struggled with three-point shooting, making only 15.4 percent on 2 of 13 downtown jumpers.

The Jayhawks won the rebounding department 34-29.

Said Reeves, "I definitely believed that we were going to win this game tonight. I feel like those threes they hit were simple mistakes we made on the floor, but they were able to hit them. It is tough for us but it's hard to come back when they hit threes like that."

Kansas star Jalen Wilson took game scoring honors with 22 points.

The Wildcats visit Ole Miss in Oxford Tuesday.  The 9 p.m. (ET) matchup will be televised by ESPN.