LEXINGTON, Ky. — Just like it was in the first game a month ago, the Kentucky-Vanderbilt basketball rematch was a lopsided affair from the start Saturday afternoon.

This time around, it was the Cats on the right side of the score.

UK jumped on the 25th-ranked Commodores in the opening minutes and never let them get within striking distance after that, rolling to a 91-77 victory in Lexington, a much-needed result for Mark Pope’s team as the regular season nears its end.

It was also quite the switch from game one in this season series.

Back on Jan. 27 — in front of a Memorial Gym crowd that was closely split between UK and Vandy fans — Pope’s Cats got off to a horrific start that put them well on their way to one of the program’s most lopsided defeats ever. Kentucky lost that one, 80-55.

The rematch was played in front of a hot Rupp Arena crowd, and the Cats gave the home fans plenty to cheer about right off the bat.

UK’s opening flurry — which featured three 3-pointers by Collin Chandler — sent the Cats to the first TV timeout of the afternoon with a 21-14 lead. (They had scored only 23 points in the entire first half in Nashville a month earlier.)

Chandler nailed a fourth 3-pointer out of that first stoppage to put Kentucky ahead 24-14 — its first double-digit lead of the game — with 13:31 still remaining in the period. The Cats kept pouring it on from there, and by the time Jasper Johnson hit a 3 to make it a 34-18 score, UK had started 13 for 19 from the floor and 7 for 10 from long range.

The Wildcats first 20-point lead of the day followed shortly thereafter — a 40-20 advantage with more than five minutes left in the half — and they were up 46-31 going into the halftime locker room. In that game in Nashville, the Cats were trailing 43-23 at the break.

Vanderbilt never let up in the second half, but the Dores didn’t do much catching up either. Kentucky’s lead never got lower than 12 points after halftime.

Chandler set a career high with 23 points, going 6 for 8 from 3-point range — another long-range make was waved off on a controversial offensive foul call — and UK shot 11 for 22 from deep as a team. The Cats made nine 3-pointers in the first half.

Aberdeen and Otega Oweh made big plays in Kentucky’s initial flurry, and they both ended up in double-figures scoring. Oweh matched Chandler with 23 points, and Aberdeen scored 15, with each player dishing out four assists.

Malachi Moreno tallied 11 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Kentucky shot 30 for 51 from the field and went 20 for 25 on free throws. The Cats also won points off turnovers 17-12. They lost that battle 28-8 in the loss at Vanderbilt last month.

This was a big one for UK in the SEC standings.

The Cats improved to 19-10 overall and 10-6 in the league — matching their conference win total from last season — and pulled one game ahead of Vanderbilt (22-7, 9-7 SEC) with two games to play.

While there’s still a logjam toward the top of the league standings, Kentucky’s shot at a double bye into the SEC Tournament quarterfinals is still intact, and the Wildcats’ chances to get at least a bye past the first round of the event are a whole lot better now than they were coming into Saturday’s game.

Next up for Kentucky will be the final true road game of the season, a matchup with Texas A&M at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday on ESPN2. The Aggies started SEC play with a 7-1 record but took a 9-6 league mark (and 19-9 overall) into their game with Texas on Saturday afternoon.

UK and A&M entered the day with the same SEC record, and the winner of Tuesday’s game will earn a head-to-head tiebreaker over the loser, something that could come in handy for the league tournament seeding process.

Kentucky’s only regular-season game after that one will be a rematch with Florida in Rupp Arena next Saturday.

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