FINAL: Jaxson Robinson shines again, No. 8 Kentucky takes down No. 11 Texas A&M 81-69

How would Jaxson Robinson follow up his best game of the season? By playing arguably his second-best game of the season.

Led by 22 points from Robinson, the No. 8 Kentucky Wildcats (14-3; 3-1 SEC) won a tough, physical battle by a final score of 81-69 against the No. 11 Texas A&M Aggies (13-4; 2-2 SEC) on Tuesday night in Rupp Arena. Robinson wasn’t as special as his 27-point performance a few days ago against Mississippi State, but he sure was great against Texas A&M — the school he started his college career with. He chipped in eight rebounds with five made triples for good measure.

Andrew Carr also reached double-figures, finishing with 13 and four rebounds. Otega Oweh‘s season-long stretch of scoring at least 10 points is also still barely alive. Thanks to some late-game free throws down the stretch, he finished with 11 points. Amari Williams added eight points, 12 rebounds, and four assists while Travis Perry canned a couple of three-pointers.

Kentucky outrebounded Texas A&M 39-30 and even won the battle on the offensive glass 12-11. The Aggies came into the game as the nation’s best offensive rebounding team. There were 45 fouls called in this game. UK shot 24-31 from the free throw line while Texas A&M went 16-25. The ‘Cats shot 46 percent as a team including a 9-27 clip from distance.

We were expecting a rock fight, and that’s exactly how this one started off. Unfortunately, we weren’t expecting such a poor shooting start for the ‘Cats. Kentucky was just 5-17 from deep in the opening half compared to an unusually impressive mark of 7-18 for the Aggies. Neither team shot better than 35 percent from the floor as offense was hard to come by on both ends.

The physicality of this matchup did lead to some early foul trouble. Robinson (who was hit with a technical foul for celebrating in front of the Texas A&M bench), Oweh, Carr, and Williams all had a pair of first-half fouls. But Kentucky was working just as hard to get to the line with the outside shots not falling. UK was 10-10 from the stripe at the intermission.

Robinson led all scorers with 15 points on 4-9 outside shooting. Kentucky actually won the first-half rebounding battle (20-19) and had more points in the paint (10-4). Despite a poor overall 20 minutes, the Wildcats still led 35-32 at the break. The start of the second half couldn’t have gone better though.

Kentucky came out of the locker room by rattling off an 11-2 run, fueled by a couple of Perry three-pointers that sent Rupp into a frenzy. Lamont Butler would go down with an injury on the opening possession but returned to the bench a few minutes later. UK’s lead would grow to as many as a dozen, but Texas A&M stayed within striking distance.

The Aggies managed to cut its deficit down to six, 59-53, with under seven minutes left in regulation. Kentucky responded with a 4-0 run that forced A&M into a timeout. But foul trouble would creep up again for UK. Williams and Brandon Garrison both received their fourth fouls in quick succession. Kentucky held a 66-58 lead into the final media timeout.

UK went for the kill from there, going up by 12 points with just over a minute remaining thanks to back-to-back buckets from Carr and Williams. Kentucky ran out the clock the rest of the way to secure the 12-point win.

Up next: Kentucky will return to Rupp Arena on Saturday for another Top 15 matchup as No. 4 Alabama comes to town for a noon EST tipoff on ESPN.