LEXINGTON, Ky. — As a product of Newark, N.J., Otega Oweh seemed an ideal resource from which to seek a snow-removal tip.

“You’ve got to catch the snow while it’s soft,” Oweh advised. “You can’t let it freeze or you get a whole lot of black ice and you might slip. So you’ve got to shovel while it is soft, for sure.”

Though it would not have seemed so earlier this season, seeking advice on how to complete a job from a Kentucky Wildcats men’s basketball player now seems eminently sensible.

The Cats have become closers.

In a game that tipped off at 11 a.m. ET Saturday to beat the “snow-mageddon” projected to hit the commonwealth of Kentucky his weekend, UK (14-6, 5-2 SEC) came through in the final minute to secure a 72-63 league victory over Mississippi (11-9, 3-4 SEC).

The Kentucky team that could not close out games vs. North Carolina and Missouri earlier this season because of late-game failures has now won five straight. In four of those five consecutive victories, Kentucky has finished wins with the kind of late-game grit and execution it lacked in the come-from-ahead defeats to UNC and Mizzou.

“All the cardiologists in BBN are to be so happy because you have so much extra work for this season,” UK coach Mark Pope said in reference to the Wildcats’ recent run of close games. “But it is really fun. The big plays are fun, the drama is fun.”

The late-game dramatics weren’t much fun against North Carolina when Kentucky missed 14 of its final 16 shot attempts to see a 56-50 lead turn into a 67-64 loss. It wasn’t much fun against Missouri, either, when the Cats scored only one field goal in their final nine possessions as a 66-58 lead turned into a 73-68 defeat.

Over the past five contests, however, UK’s late-game performances have merited boffo reviews.

Against Ole Miss, Oweh scored 20 of his 23 points in the second half and had 15 of Kentucky’s final 25 points in the game.

With UK clinging to a 3-point lead inside the final minute, Collin Chandler drained a 3-pointer from the right wing with 47 seconds left to give the Wildcats control of the contest, 66-60.

Mouhamed Dioubate set up Chandler’s clutch trey by securing possession of an offensive rebound off a missed free throw. On the subsequent defensive possession following Chandler’s dagger, Dioubate’s doggedness hounded Ole Miss wing AJ Storr into an errant 15-foot jumper.

It was those same three plus Denzel Aberdeen who came up huge in the final minute of Kentucky’s 80-78 win at Tennessee one Saturday ago.

After Texas pulled within 80-78 of Kentucky in the final minute Wednesday night, Aberdeen closed out UK’s 85-80 win by hitting 6 of 8 foul shots in the final 26 seconds.

At LSU, Chandler and Malachi Moreno successfully executed “the Christian Laettner” play that set up Moreno’s game-winning jumper just ahead of the final buzzer and gave Kentucky a 76-75 come-from-behind win.

How did a team that couldn’t get out of its own way when the game was on the line earlier this season morph into the kings of clutch?

“I think the guys are a little more comfortable with each other,” Pope said. “We’re staying as simple as we possibly can. ... Teams are built different ways. We’re trying to stay really, really simple so our guys can go play.”

Oweh believes that learning to value possession of the basketball has been integral to UK’s turnaround in late-game performance.

“A lot of those (late-game losses) were (due to) turning the ball over,” Oweh said. “So now, we’ve just been really protecting the ball. I think that’s kind of what’s leading to us closing them out.”

Chandler said a philosophical realization has helped yield his pressure-proof performances late in recent games.

“At the end of the day, basketball is a game. ... We can put so much weight on it, but it’s a game,” he said. “The only things on my mind (are) ‘I love the game, and I love winning.’

“It’s not always going to go your way. It has the last few games, but sometimes it won’t. When you realize that sometimes it can go wrong, and you’ve accepted that, it takes a lot of pressure (off) and you’re able to play freely and deliver.”

Over Kentucky’s next five games, we’re going to find out if the Wildcats have improved enough to be a genuine contender for the SEC championship.

The Cats are on the road next week at Vanderbilt and Arkansas, then come home to play Oklahoma and face Tennessee in a rematch before playing at defending NCAA champion Florida.

What we can say now is that, after UK’s past five games, the Wildcats have learned how to finish.”

“It’s kind of fun to chart the last few minutes of every game,” Pope said, “because every single one of our guys is making a big play, and it makes it fun, man.”

Contrary to what any of us would have expected after North Carolina and Missouri, that is no snow job.

____

©2026 Lexington Herald-Leader. Visit kentucky.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.