Kentucky’s upset bid falls short. No. 1 Kansas comes back to beat UK in Champions Classic.

Kentucky nearly pulled off an upset for the ages Tuesday night.

Short-handed, undersized and outclassed at the beginning, the Wildcats stormed back and seemed on the verge of victory over No. 1-ranked Kansas in the Champions Classic.

They couldn’t hold on.

Kansas defeated Kentucky 89-84, coming back from a six-point deficit with less than four minutes left in the game.

Preseason All-American Hunter Dickinson finished with 27 points and 21 rebounds for the Jayhawks. The 7-foot-2 center started off strong against UK’s smaller lineup — the Cats start 6-9 forward Tre Mitchell at the 5 spot, with their trio of 7-footers still sidelined — and kept coming up with key baskets and big rebounds throughout the night.

Kansas point guard Dajuan Harris Jr. had 23 points and seven assists, hitting two big 3-pointers to lead the Jayhawks’ late comeback. Kevin McCullar Jr. had a triple-double for KU with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.

Antonio Reeves shot poorly overall but hit some big ones for the Wildcats, leading the team with 24 points. Freshman guard Rob Dillingham sparked UK’s comeback in the first half, finishing with 18 points. He scored 16 of those before halftime. Adou Thiero tallied 16 points and 13 rebounds in a gritty performance. Reed Sheppard added 13 points off the bench, and Tre Mitchell played a physical style of basketball against the much bigger, much taller Dickinson all night long.

The team effort from the Cats almost resulted in one of Kentucky’s biggest regular-season victories in years.

UK led by as many 14 points early in the second half, but Kansas roared back with a 21-4 run from that point. The two teams exchanged the lead from there, the game coming down to the final seconds.

Sheppard missed an off-balance 3-point attempt with about six seconds left that would have tied it.

The top-ranked Jayhawks put Kentucky in a 9-0 hole less than three minutes in, and UK missed seven of its first eight shots from the field. A 3-pointer from Thiero — a shot that needed multiple bounces on the rim to go down — accounted for the Wildcats’ only points in the first five-plus minutes.

UK was 4-for-18 from the field when Sheppard provided the spark off the bench, nailing back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Cats a 17-16 lead with 9:54 left in the first half, their first advantage of the night.

Kansas took the lead right back 16 seconds later, but Dillingham’s flurry vaulted Kentucky back on top. The freshman guard hit four consecutive 3-pointers over a span of two minutes. The third make in that sequence was a pull-up from nearly 30 feet. After the fourth 3-pointer, Dillingham passed up another opportunity and found Reeves for an open 3 to give the Cats a six-point lead. Later in the half, Thiero threw down two powerful putback dunks, and the Kentucky fans who made the trip to Chicago roared along, filling the United Center with “Go Big Blue!” chants as the top-ranked Jayhawks flailed.

UK’s lead grew to as much as 12 points late in the half, before Dickinson hit two free throws and a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to cut the Cats’ advantage to 48-41 at halftime.

UK vs. No. 1 teams

The loss to Kansas on Tuesday night dropped the Wildcats to 8-16 all-time against teams ranked No. 1 in the AP Top 25 poll. It was Kentucky’s first such game since the 2019 Champions Classic, when the No. 2-ranked Cats defeated top-ranked Michigan State in Madison Square Garden behind 26 points from Tyrese Maxey in his college debut.

John Calipari now has a 3-3 record against No. 1 teams as UK’s head coach. He had won the last two matchups — the Michigan State game and an 86-69 victory over Tennessee during the 2018-19 season — and also led the Cats past top-ranked Ohio State in the 2011 NCAA Tournament. His two previous losses against No. 1 teams came within eight days of each other, both to Florida toward the end of the 2013-14 season.

Kentucky’s next game

The Wildcats should get a bit of a breather next time out, with a matchup against Stonehill College coming up on the schedule Friday night. The game is set for 7 p.m. and will be streaming on SEC Network+.

Like last Friday’s opponent (Texas A&M-Commerce, which UK beat by 20 points), the Skyhawks are in their second year of transitioning from Division II to NCAA DI status.

Stonehill is 1-3 on the season so far, with a 57-44 win over Army and lopsided losses to George Washington (89-44), reigning national champion UConn (107-67), and most recently, a 100-56 defeat to St. Joseph’s earlier Tuesday night.

Friday’s game will be the last streaming-only contest on the 2023-24 schedule for Kentucky, which will play the remainder of its games on SEC Network, CBS or one of the ESPN channels.

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