Kentucky's second-half scoring drought vs. North Carolina was its worst in eight seasons

How did North Carolina beat Kentucky? Let me tell you the ways. The Tar Heels punished the Cats on the glass, with 20 offensive rebounds to Kentucky’s eight, which led to 22 second-chance points. Kentucky only hit one three-pointer all night, and it was by Brandon Garrison. In the final 13 minutes, the Cats only made two field goals total. North Carolina had its own struggles offensively in the second half, but hit five of its last seven shots to close out the 67-64 win, its first in Rupp Arena since December 2007.

The fact that Brandon Garrison was the only Kentucky player to make a three tonight speaks volumes, but after his shot went in to put the Cats up four with 13:08 to go, Kentucky did not score another field goal until Otega Oweh’s driving layup with 2:43 remaining. During that 10:25 stretch, Kentucky missed 13 straight shots. According to ESPN Research, that’s the longest scoring drought for the Cats in at least the last eight seasons.

Kentucky's current streak of 13 missed shots in a row is its longest drought in a game in at least the last eight seasons, per ESPN Research.

Wildcats haven't made a shot in nearly 10 minutes of game action. (And yet, still tied.)

— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) December 3, 2025

Pope said tonight’s offensive issues were due to a combination of things: missed opportunities, poor shot selection, lack of ball movement, and fatigue. For the latter, he said he might go deeper into the bench. Having Jaland Lowe and Mo Dioubate back will help, along with Jayden Quaintance’s eventual return.

“We really haven’t — it hasn’t been a huge scoring issue,” Mark Pope said of the scoring droughts in his postgame press conference. “Tonight, it was, for sure. I mean, it’s gonna be hard for us to win scoring 64 points. It’s uncommon for us to be 1-13 from three. That’s not really who we are. More disappointing is the eight assists. That’s really frustrating. I thought in the second half, our decision making was poor and caught up in the moment, trying to make — we just still have a steep learning curve trying to figure out how to make plays for our teammates, and that we shoot it well when we actually do that. When we don’t, we don’t.”

How does Kentucky avoid another 10+ minute scoring drought? Having a go-to scorer helps. Last season, that was Otega Oweh. Oweh led the team in scoring tonight with 16 points on 6-11 from the field and 4-6 from the free-throw line. He was 3-6 in the second half, the only Kentucky player to make more than one bucket after halftime. Denzel Aberdeen was 1-7 from the field after half, Collin Chandler 1-4.

“There are several things that can help you,” Pope said of how to break out of scoring droughts. “One, pace of the game can really help you. Two, having a couple of guys in places where you can go that you really trust to go find you a basket. Three, just simple things, like catching the ball with two hands, it was really hard. You have a wide-open layup under the basket, you just dropped the ball out of bounds, or some inconceivable things that just happened because of the flow of the game.

“So, I wish it were one thing that you do, but it’s just a grouping of things where we just need to get better and get more solid, and we’ve got to find a balance between me meddling with the game and the guys feeling the game, but all that’s part of it. It’s a struggle for us right now.”

Worst three-point shooting of Pope Era

Back to the three-point shooting. Kentucky was 1-13 from beyond the arc tonight, by far its lowest number of attempts and makes. Mark Pope came into this season wanting his team to average at least 30 three-point attempts per game. They didn’t even get half of that tonight. Credit to North Carolina for their defense, but even when Kentucky got a good look, they missed badly.

The lone three is a new low in the Mark Pope era, the previous being four vs. Auburn last season. As Evan Miya noted, Kentucky is 0-7 under Pope when it makes six or fewer threes.

Tell me if you're heard this before: Kentucky struggled to shoot three-ball. Just one made three tonight.

The previous low under Mark Pope for Kentucky was 4 made threes. Kentucky is 0-7 under Mark Pope when making 6 or fewer threes.

This can't be an issue going forward.

— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) December 3, 2025

“They switch,” Pope said of North Carolina’s three-point defense. “They switch a lot, and so they cover a lot of actions that way. I thought they had some good physicality, and I thought we shot it poorly.”

Hopefully, the Cats find their shot before coming down to Nashville to face No. 11 Gonzaga on Friday night.