LEXINGTON, Ky. — On Wednesday night, Kentucky’s final sequence in what was a one-possession game vs. Missouri yielded a contested, double-pump 3-point attempt that came nowhere close to the basket.

As a result, boos rained down from the Rupp Arena stands.

The 2025-26 Wildcats should have become familiar with that sound. When the Cats were run out of Nashville, Tenn., by Gonzaga early last month, the heavily-pro UK crowd in the Music City booed Kentucky off the court.

So on Saturday night, when the Wildcats — fresh off their come-from-ahead 73-68 loss to Mizzou — came out and fell behind Mississippi State 18-6, elements of the Rupp Arena crowd of 19,725 were not bashful in sharing how they felt.

“BOOOOOOO!” once again filled Rupp.

Yet, this time, something unexpected occurred.

The Wildcats (10-6, 1-2 SEC) turned the boos to cheers by turning in their best performance of the season with a 92-68 throttling of the visiting Bulldogs (10-6, 2-1 SEC).

For Kentucky, stellar performances abounded.

An attacking Otega Oweh went for 22 points, three rebounds, five assists and five steals. In the best game of his young college career to date, freshman center Malachi Moreno had 17 points, eight rebounds, six assists and four steals.

Playing his most efficient game in a Kentucky uniform, Florida transfer Denzel Aberdeen kept the ball moving and had 16 points and four assists. Off the bench, Tulane transfer Kam Williams chipped in 14 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals. UK was a robust plus-32 when Williams was on the court.

Yet the number that left Cats coach Mark Pope almost glowing was that Kentucky assisted on 21 of its 37 made field goals.

“Twenty-one assists is the most we’ve had against a Power-Five (conference team) by five,” Pope said. “... It helps when you make shots, but I think (you are more likely to) make shots when your teammates pass you the ball.”

Now, maybe this was a one-game blip. Maybe the lack of chemistry which UK has displayed offensively for much of this season returns. Perhaps the roster reverts to looking like a collection of misfit parts.

Certainly, it is concerning that Kentucky point guard Jaland Lowe, battling right shoulder injuries all season, left Saturday night’s game before the first television timeout and never returned after taking a hard hit.

Still, wouldn’t it be something if what almost has to be “the most-booed team” in Kentucky men’s basketball history put something together and wrote a happy ending to what has so far been mostly a slog of a season?

In the era of players profiting from their names, images and likenesses, the ticket-buying public seems more comfortable than it once was expressing its displeasure toward college-aged players when things are not going well.

The fact that Kentucky interests reportedly spent $22 million putting together a UK roster that, even with the victory over MSU, has started the season 3-6 against high-major competition seems to have been perceived as a license to boo.

“They don’t really bother me, because if they boo or cheer, we still gotta go play,” Oweh said. “So it’s unfortunate. Obviously, we don’t want to put the fans in that situation. But you know, we still got to go perform any which way.”

Moreno said the boos that filled Rupp Arena early in Saturday’s game fired him up.

“I (found) it motivating, because they came to watch good basketball,” Moreno said of the Rupp Arena fans. “At the time, we just weren’t playing good basketball. So I think (the booing) really just gave us ... the juice that we needed.”

On a night when Kentucky saluted one of its past teams — the 1965-66 Wildcats, known in UK hoops lore as “Rupp’s Runts” due to the relative lack of height on their roster — known for its superior passing and ball movement, the 2025-26 Wildcats at last showed some sustained fluidity on offense.

Moving forward, we’ll know if what the Cats put on display vs. Mississippi State was more than a one-game aberration if the ball continues to move.

If Lowe is sidelined by his balky shoulder, watch to see if Aberdeen can run the point in the same manner he did vs. MSU as opposed to how he handled the role in some earlier games.

Against the Bulldogs, Williams, largely a spot-up shooter, had multiple drives in which he put the ball on the deck and scored. It would give UK another dimension if he can do that consistently.

Observe to see if Moreno can sustain the confidence with which he played against Mississippi State.

You know that Oweh, who has scored 20 or more points in four of UK’s past five games, will be there for the Cats.

For one night, a Kentucky team that has heard the boos like no other Wildcats squad, showed enough to at least make one wonder if there can be a happy ending at the conclusion of a season whose start has featured so much angst.

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