Kentucky's second-half spark is enough to beat Texas for 4th win in a row

Ben Roberts, Lexington Herald-Leader on Jan 21, 2026

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky didn’t need a double-digit comeback Wednesday night.

But it didn’t exactly come easy.

The Wildcats couldn’t quite pull away from Texas — and even fell behind the Longhorns briefly in the second half — but Mark Pope’s basketball team made enough plays down the stretch to secure an 85-80 victory in Rupp Arena.

Kentucky was clinging to a 63-60 lead with nine minutes left, when Collin Chandler hit a 3-pointer and then made four consecutive free throws — all seven points coming in a span of 76 seconds — to put the Cats ahead 70-60.

Texas got back within six points a short time later, but Chandler answered that rally with another flurry of his own. The sophomore guard hit a corner 3 and then picked up a steal on the Longhorns’ ensuing possession, taking the ball the other way for a dunk that ignited the Rupp crowd.

Chandler’s five-point burst in 21 seconds gave Kentucky a 76-65 lead with 5:48 left. Texas coach Sean Miller called a timeout after the dunk, and the Cats were able to hang on from there.

The Longhorns narrowed UK’s lead to 80-78 with 55 seconds remaining. Denzel Aberdeen hit two free throws with 26.7 seconds left to make it an 82-78 score, and Mouhamed Dioubate grabbed a big defensive rebound on Texas’ next possession to help clinch the victory.

Chandler’s dunk with 5:48 left was Kentucky’s final made basket of the game.

This is the first time in the Pope era that Kentucky has won four consecutive games against high-major opponents, with the win over Texas following victories over Tennessee, LSU and Mississippi State.

The Cats improved to 13-6 on the season and 4-2 in the SEC.

Chandler scored a career-high 18 points, adding six rebounds and two steals. Aberdeen had 19 points, with Otega Oweh scoring 18 points. Malachi Moreno tallied eight points, four rebounds, a team-high six assists and five blocks.

Kam Williams scored nine points before leaving the court with 18:11 left due to a foot injury. He did not return to the UK bench, and he was officially ruled out for the rest of the game with 9:35 remaining.

The first half was a one-possession game for all but 43 seconds, with Kentucky taking an early 6-2 lead and then going ahead 28-23 on a 3-pointer by Aberdeen with around seven minutes left. Other than those two occasions, no team led by more than three points.

Oweh and Aberdeen scored 10 points each in the opening period, with Oweh hitting double figures with 8:50 still remaining in the half. He missed his final four shots before halftime, but Aberdeen picked up the slack from there, scoring eight of his 10 first-half points in the final seven minutes of the period.

Aberdeen’s floater with about three seconds left tied the score at 40 going into the halftime locker room. It marked the 11th time in 12 games against high-major opponents this season that Kentucky did not lead at the break. The only exception has been UK’s 92-68 victory over Mississippi State earlier this month, when the Cats led 44-39 at halftime.

Unlike the past three games — where Kentucky was down double digits in the first half — UK played Texas close over the opening 20 minutes. The Cats were either ahead or the score was tied for 13 minutes and 15 seconds in the first half.

The Longhorns never led by more than three points.

Texas (11-8, 2-4 SEC) is in its first season under Miller and came into this game as the “last team in” the 2026 NCAA tournament field, according to ESPN’s latest Bracketology update.

The Longhorns have already beat No. 15 Vanderbilt and won at No. 17 Alabama, but they’ve now lost to Mississippi State, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Kentucky — four teams that are not currently in the Top 25 rankings.

Kentucky was playing its fourth consecutive game without sophomore forward Jayden Quaintance, a projected NBA lottery pick who remains out with swelling in his surgically repaired knee. Quaintance made his UK debut in a win over St. John’s on Dec. 20 — nine months after surgery for a torn ACL — but has not played since the Cats’ loss to Missouri on Jan. 7.

UK’s next game will be against the Ole Miss Rebels (11-8, 3-3 SEC) at noon Saturday in Rupp Arena.

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