ST. LOUIS — A grueling Kentucky basketball season came to a disappointing end Sunday afternoon.

The Cats led 2-seeded Iowa State by double digits in the early going — sparking hopes that they might pull off a March Madness upset — before the Cyclones took over in the second half and ended UK’s season with an 82-63 victory in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Mark Pope’s team finished the 2025-26 campaign with a 22-14 record in his second season as the program’s head coach.

The 19-point loss tied for the second-most-lopsided in UK’s NCAA Tournament history. Kentucky lost by 24 to Western Kentucky in 1971. The Cats took 19-point losses in the 1942 and 1972 NCAA Tournaments.

Turnovers, a constant issue in UK’s losses this season, proved to be a hindrance once again Sunday in the Enterprise Center, where the Cats committed 20 of them against Iowa State’s vaunted defense. The Cyclones outscored Kentucky 25-12 in points off turnovers.

Playing in his final college game, UK senior Otega Oweh recorded 18 points and eight rebounds. Fellow senior Denzel Aberdeen scored 20 points for the Cats.

Kentucky led for almost the entire first half and trailed by just one point at halftime, but the Cats lost control of the matchup in the opening minutes of the second half.

Plagued by turnovers all afternoon, the miscues continued for Kentucky in the early going of that second period, and Iowa State — which struggled to make shots in the first 20 minutes — made the Cats pay for their miscues with good looks and made baskets at the other end.

The Cyclones turned those forced turnovers into the momentum necessary to distance themselves from UK in the second half, turning a 31-30 advantage at the break into a double-digit lead before the second TV timeout of the period.

Milan Momcilovic hit a 3-pointer to give Iowa State a 59-41 lead with 9:53 to play, capping a 13-1 run for the Cyclones, who led the Cats by just six points before that flurry began.

A little while later, Iowa State guard Jamarion Batemon pulled up for a long 3-pointer to give Iowa State a 70-47 lead. There were still more than six minutes to play, but Kentucky’s chances at a comeback were virtually gone.

Iowa State was a 5-point favorite at tipoff despite losing All-American forward Joshua Jefferson to a sprained ankle in the NCAA Tournament opener two days earlier. Jefferson entered the arena on a scooter Sunday and was officially ruled out well before game time.

Even without Jefferson, the Cyclones — regarded as one of the best defensive units in college basketball — brought a stout lineup led by Momcilovic, the team’s leading scorer, and veteran guard Tamin Lipsey to this matchup.

Lipsey led the Cyclones with 26 points and 10 assists. Momcilovic scored 20 points. Iowa State shot 63.3% from the field in the second half.

In a switch from many big games this season, it was Kentucky that controlled the first half.

Iowa State scored on its opening possession, but that 2-0 lead was the Cyclones’ only advantage until the very end of the period.

Oweh cut to the basket for a dunk on UK’s first possession. Collin Chandler hit a 3-pointer after that. Then Aberdeen drove for a layup, and Chandler, who was 6 for 28 from deep for the month of March coming into this game, rimmed in a second 3-pointer to give Kentucky a 10-2 lead.

It wasn’t long before back-to-back 3s from Aberdeen and a Mouhamed Dioubate bucket had extended the Cats’ advantage to 18-6. They led 20-9 at the second TV timeout.

But it wouldn’t be that easy.

The Cyclones went on an 11-0 run out of the timeout to tie it up at 20.

Aberdeen answered with a layup to put the Cats back up, and neither team scored a bucket for three full minutes after that. Kentucky went 6:48 of game time with just two points, and the Cats committed four turnovers in a little more than two minutes during the Cyclones’ run. Kentucky ended up with 12 turnovers in the first half.

Meanwhile, Iowa State, which came into the day ranked seventh nationally in 3-point percentage, missed its first 11 attempts from long range.

The Cyclones finally stopped that skid with a 3-pointer from Momcilovic — the top 3-point shooter in the country — to narrow Kentucky’s lead to 25-23.

With the Cats up 30-23 and about 90 seconds left in the half, a pivotal moment went against them. They were unable to corral a defensive rebound, and the ball ended up in the hands of Momcilovic, who nailed another 3-pointer to spark an 8-0 run to end the half.

That flurry was capped by Nate Heise, who buried a 3-pointer from the corner after a defensive breakdown by the Cats in the closing seconds of the half. That shot put Iowa State ahead 31-30 going into the break, the Cyclones’ first advantage since they were up 2-0 in the opening minute.

Iowa State led for only 18 seconds in the first half and shot just 29% from the field over the first 20 minutes, but they took that 31-30 lead into the halftime locker room. Meanwhile, UK’s players huddled on the court to talk over that final defensive breakdown before heading to the back to prepare for the second half.

This was the first time since 2019 that the Cats advanced beyond the first round of the NCAA Tournament in consecutive years.

It was still a disappointing end for a team that was ranked No. 9 in the Associated Press Top 25 preseason poll and defeated Purdue — the No. 1 team in those rankings and a Sweet 16 qualifier earlier Sunday afternoon — in its first exhibition game back in October, sparking even higher hopes for the season.

Instead, Pope and his coaching staff will be jumping into roster-building mode for the 2026-27 campaign, with the transfer portal set to open April 7 and the Cats looking for more help for next season.

____

©2026 Lexington Herald-Leader. Visit kentucky.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.