Mark Pope‘s Wildcats aren’t done dancing just yet.
On Sunday night in Milwaukee, 3-seed Kentucky controlled the game from start to finish, beating 6-seed Illinois 84-75 in the second round of the 2025 NCAA Tournament. Koby Brea was the Wildcats’ star player, finishing with 23 points and six rebounds on 10-16 shooting. He was helped out by 15 points from Otega Oweh and 14 more from Lamont Butler, the latter tacking on five assists to his line. After a slow start, Amari Williams contributed eight points, 10 rebounds, and six assists for good measure.
Kentucky shot 47.1 percent from the field, including an 8-21 clip from beyond the arc. The ‘Cats dished out 18 assists and only turned the ball over five times. Meanwhile, Illinois shot 43.5 percent overall with a 9-32 (28.1 percent) mark from deep. The Fighting Illini turned the ball over 14 times, which UK converted into 26 points the other way.
The win sets up a Sweet 16 showdown next week against 2-seed Tennesee in Indianapolis. Kentucky went 2-0 against the Volunteers during the regular season. UK has not been to the Sweet 16 since advancing to the Elite 8 in 2019.
After a scoreless opening minute, Brea struck first for Kentucky with a layup. Illinois would take its first lead, 5-4, a couple of minutes later, but the Wildcats responded. Off the bench, Collin Chandler was providing excellent first-half minutes on both ends of the floor. He hit an early three-pointer and drew the defensive assignment on Will Riley. UK jumped out to a 13-5 lead five minutes in.
But missed layups would surface again for the ‘Cats. Oweh saw just six minutes of first-half action before picking up his second foul and heading to the bench. However, Kentucky’s defense was off to a terrific start, particularly on Riley and Kasparas Jakucionis. UK went up as by as many as a dozen points midway through the half before Illinois began to chip away. A 10-2 run from the Illini made it a four-point game before Butler, who led the ‘Cats with 10 points before the break, drilled a timely three-pointer.
Kylan Boswell and Tomislav Ivisic combined for 18 first-half points to hold Illinois above water. But a 3-14 clip from long range as a team along with eight turnovers (all coming via Kentucky steals) prevented the Illini from taking a lead. Despite some offensive struggles by Williams and Brandon Garrison (3-10 FG and two turnovers between them), UK was in a good spot at the intermission, holding onto a 37-32 advantage.
Kentucky came out of the gate firing to start the second half. An immediate 8-0 run forced an Illinois timeout as the lead was stretched out to a game-high 13 points. By the first media timeout, the ‘Cats were ahead 53-39. But Illinois finally started to drain some outside shots, making four of its first seven to start the second half.
Boswell and Ivisic, up to 30 combined points with 12 minutes to go, were the only reason this game was close for UK. It was only a nine-point lead for Kentucky at the time — then Brea turned up the heat. The veteran scored 10 straight for the ‘Cats to make it a 14-point game at the under 8-minute media timeout.
Illinois refused to go away for good though. They had a chance to make a single-digit game until Butler came up with another steal and dished it to Garrison for an and-one finish. At the final media timeout, Kentucky led 74-64. But out of the break, Ivisic would drop in a layup to make it an eight-point game with under three minutes to go as UK had missed 11 of its last 12 field goals.
A stepback jumper from Boswell trimmed Kentucky’s lead down to six with 1:36 on the clock, but a clutch layup from Andrew Carr, who finished with eight points and six rebounds, on the next possession stretched the advantage back out to eight points. It became a free throw game from there for the ‘Cats. UK hit more than enough the rest of the way to lock up the win and make the Sweet 16.
