One play went wrong for Kentucky in loss to Gonzaga. But so did a lot of other things.

The most memorable play of Kentucky’s 89-85 loss to Gonzaga on Saturday night will go down as a real head-scratcher.

With about seven seconds left on the clock and the Wildcats trailing by two points, Reed Sheppard threw a lob from the perimeter intended for Adou Thiero, who was streaking toward the rim with the game on the line. Thiero’s abundant athleticism had already been on display over the nearly 40 minutes that preceded that play, the sophomore finishing off dunks throughout the night with a flourish, helping to put the Wildcats in position for a win.

On this play, the ball never found him. And when the whistle blew — Gonzaga going to the foul line with a chance to ice it — John Calipari was left with his hands on his head on the UK sideline.

After the game, Calipari said the plan was to go for the lob, and if it wasn’t there — “and obviously it wasn’t,” the UK coach said — it called for Antonio Reeves to get open for a 3-pointer. Nothing that was drawn up went Kentucky’s way.

When Sheppard let go of the pass — plenty of time still left on the clock — Reeves was nowhere near the 3-point line, caught up in traffic on his way to the perimeter. But it looked like the lob was going to be the play anyway, and Sheppard’s pass was intercepted by Gonzaga’s Ben Gregg before Thiero got anywhere close to his apex.

Thiero was left with no choice but to foul Gregg, who hit one of two free throws to put the Zags up 87-84. Reeves was fouled quickly after UK put the ball into play, and his intentional miss to try and get an offensive rebound didn’t work. Nolan Hickman hit two free throws to set the final score, and the Cats didn’t get another chance.

After the game, Thiero disputed Calipari’s assertion that the lob wasn’t there.

“In my eyes, it was open,” he said. “When the guy grabbed the ball, my head was already there. I feel like if Reed threw it a little higher, we would have connected on it.”

The pass was indeed behind Thiero and not nearly high enough, in addition to the two players’ mistiming their connection. When Gregg caught it, Thiero had barely left his feet, still on his way toward the basket. And by the time he reached his above-the-rim high point, the game was pretty much sealed.

“I think Reed should’ve thrown it higher, and Adou would’ve got it,” Reeves said. “It was a good play. Adou was open a little bit. Everybody makes mistakes.”

Perhaps a better pass or different timing would’ve led to a different result. We’ll never know.

“But that didn’t lose us the game,” Calipari said.

On that point, everyone involved was in agreement.

“It’s not Reed’s fault,” Thiero said. “Plays happen throughout the game — on the defensive side, some on the offensive side — that led up to that point. We can’t just blame it all on that last play right there.”

Reeves said the same.

Sheppard, though he was the Wildcats’ leading scorer, was not one of the three UK players selected to talk with reporters after the game, so he didn’t get to explain his viewpoint of that crucial play.

“He was down about it,” Thiero said. “I told him not to take all the pain from the last play. There was stuff throughout the game. We had a lot of breakdowns. Offensive rebounds, we gave a lot up. They were scoring in the paint at ease.

“I told him to keep his head up. He played a great game. And we gotta bounce back.”

That one play will get plenty of scrutiny — why draw up such a risky maneuver in the first place, for starters — but Kentucky’s players and its head coach were correct.

This game was lost elsewhere.

Calipari specifically mentioned Gonzaga’s 18 offensive rebounds and a whopping 50 points in the paint. The Zags came out and delivered the first punch in Rupp, going on a 7-0 run as soon as they touched the ball for the first time and jumping out to an 11-4 lead that led Calipari to call a timeout before the first TV stoppage of the game.

“Throw the first punch in the first half,” said Reeves of what these Cats didn’t do. “We all gotta come together, we gotta fight in the first couple of minutes, and show we’re not punks.”

Calipari bemoaned the fact that his Cats got beat to so many 50/50 balls, which his players couldn’t dispute afterward.

“You keep on them about their intensity to start a game and the fight you have to have, especially at home,” the UK coach said. “It is just disappointing we got beat to so many balls. Just disappointing. I think we’re better than that.”

The defense, bad all season long, didn’t change Saturday, with Gonzaga scoring at will, especially in the paint. UK’s players looked lost in pick-and-roll situations yet again, the Cats’ connectivity on that end of the court once more cause for concern.

“Most of our breakdowns come down on the defensive end,” Calipari said. “And I’m spending a lot of time on it, and we are working on it. Thank goodness we have time.”

That time is running out. Kentucky dropped to 16-7 on the season, now losers of four of its last six games. The Cats also suffered their third straight loss in Rupp Arena for the first time. Never before had a UK team dropped three in a row in the building, which opened in 1976. Only five other UK teams have even lost two consecutive games in Rupp.

The last time a Kentucky squad dropped three in a row at home was 1966, and that was the only other instance since 1927, three years before Adolph Rupp was hired as UK’s head coach.

The Cats now have just eight games remaining in their regular season, and they’ve still yet to play at full strength. Starting forward Tre Mitchell missed his second consecutive game with a back injury Saturday. Starting point guard D.J. Wagner returned from an ankle injury after missing Kentucky’s three previous games, but he was limited to three points in just 13 minutes, clearly still far from 100% healthy.

Only Sheppard and Reeves have played all 23 games this season. They led the Wildcats on Saturday, with Sheppard scoring 21 points and Reeves adding 17.

Sheppard was scoreless and took just two shots in the first half. UK trailed 42-32 at the break.

And then the reigning Kentucky Mr. Basketball went off, dropping all 21 of his points on the Zags after halftime, going 8-for-10 from the field and making all five of his free throws in the second half. His back-to-back layups — the final one coming on an and-one play — put the Cats ahead 57-51 with 12:30 left and further ignited another hot Rupp Arena crowd.

Gonzaga took the lead back later in the half, and then Sheppard came up with another doozy, showing off his two-way ability by blocking Hickman’s 3-point attempt, collecting the ball, driving all the way down the court and completing an and-one finish to tie the game up at 75-all with 4:09 left.

The Zags took the lead right back 18 seconds later and never gave it up again.

And Kentucky’s defense was once again the culprit.

Gonzaga scored on eight of the nine possessions immediately preceding Sheppard’s game-tying play, and the Zags then scored on seven of their final eight possessions after he tied it up.

Thiero agreed that Kentucky’s “effort” and “toughness” was lacking. “Offense wins games, but defense wins championships,” he said. “And we gotta figure that out.”

Now three-quarters of the way into the regular season, these Cats are still searching.

“We’ve just gotta rep the name on the jersey: Kentucky. The people who played here before us, they left it all on the floor. We’ve gotta start doing that,” Thiero said. “… We can’t think it’s gonna be easy for us. Guys came in already with a target on their back. Just because of the jersey we’re wearing, we’ve got an even bigger target on our back. And we’ve gotta go out every night and prove ourselves. It’s never going to be an easy night. Everybody’s gonna bring their A game. So we just gotta toughen up.”

Next game

Mississippi at No. 17 Kentucky

When: 9 p.m. Tuesday

TV: ESPN

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Records: Mississippi 18-5 (5-5 SEC), Kentucky 16-7 (6-4)

Series: Kentucky leads 110-14

Last meeting: Kentucky won 75-66 on Jan. 21, 2023, in Oxford, Mississippi

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