The Kentucky Wildcats fell in the CBS Sports Classic to the Ohio State Buckeyes tonight by a score of 85-65.
It marks the second loss of the season for the Wildcats to fall to 10-2 on the season.
The Cats struggled on both ends of the floor, putting forth its worst offensive output of the season while struggling heavily on defense against an Ohio State team that has seen its share of struggles this season.
Kentucky will have plenty of time to learn from this loss, as they’re off until New Year’s Eve, when they will host Brown before launching into SEC play on January 4.
Here are four things to know from the Cats’ second defeat of the Mark Pope era.
Ohio State continues to own Kentucky in this event
What is it about Kentucky playing Ohio State in the CBS Sports Classic?
Since this event began in 2014, Kentucky is now 0-3 against the Buckeyes. The Cats fell to the Buckeyes in 2015 despite a 33-point effort by Jamal Murray. The Buckeyes won again in 2019 in a matchup between teams ranked in the top 10.
For some reason, Kentucky has had no answer for Ohio State in this event, and that trend continues.
Oh well. At least we have 2011.
Kentucky’s offensive struggles
Kentucky struggled to get anything going offensively tonight. The Cats struggled shooting the 3 but also struggled inside the arc, too, including one sequence about midway in the second half where Kentucky missed four consecutive shots at the rim and a near six-minute stretch between the 7-minute mark and the 1:32 mark in the second half where Kentucky went without a made field goal.
Overall, Kentucky finished the night shooting 30 percent from the field, including a 4-22 mark from 3.
Too often, Kentucky had chances to score at the rim but missed, including on multiple second-chance opportunities as Kentucky finished with 13 offensive rebounds.
This team has done a good job of finding other ways to score when the 3s weren’t falling this season, but tonight, the Cats couldn’t get shots to fall from anywhere on the floor.
Cats can’t keep up defensively
The Wildcats struggled on both ends of the floor. As much as Kentucky struggled to put the ball in the basket, it seemed like Ohio State was able to do so with ease.
Kentucky struggled to defend Ohio State off the dribble, as the Buckeyes were able to get to the rim and finish all night.
Ohio State didn’t shoot the ball well from outside but made their living at the rim and in the mid-range, finishing the night shooting better than 56 percent from the floor despite shooting 26 percent from deep. The Buckeyes shot around 68 percent from inside the arc.
Bruce Thornton had a career-high 30 points on 8-13 shooting, and former Wildcat Aaron Bradshaw had 11 points for the Buckeyes.
It was a disappointing defensive effort against a Buckeyes team that shot just 34 percent against Texas A&M and 35 percent against Auburn.
Free-throw shooting improves
If you’re looking for a silver lining from tonight’s game, Kentucky had one of its best free throw shooting performances of the season, shooting 84 percent from the line on 32 attempts.
Quite frankly, free throws were what kept Kentucky in the game.
That’s something you hope to see Kentucky build on headed into SEC play. Kentucky entered tonight’s game 152nd in the country in free throw percentage at around 72 percent.
In a tough SEC slate where games could be decided by slim margins, you’d like to see Kentucky up that percentage.
Now, let’s discuss that brutal game we just witnessed.
