Kentucky Basketball’s streak of NCAA Tournament overtime heartbreak comes to an end
Kentucky wins its first NCAA Tournament overtime game since Tayshaun Prince was still on campus.
Otega Oweh just helped Kentucky Basketball do something we’ve not seen in over two decades, which came thanks to his miracle buzzer-beater in the Wildcats’ 89-84 overtime win over Santa Clara . With just 2. 4 seconds remaining in regulation, the senior guard launched a prayer of a 3-pointer that banked in and sent the game into overtime with both teams tied at 73-all.
The Wildcats would go on to win thanks to a big OT period from Oweh and junior forward Brandon Garrison. While that magical moment was one we won’t soon forget, the game going into overtime did likely bring up some old wounds for the BBN. For all of Kentucky’s incredible history and memorable postseason runs, the Wildcats hadn’t won an NCAA Tournament overtime game since 2000.
That victory came March 16th when Tayshaun Prince scored 28 points while Keith Bogans added 19 to help the 5-seeded Wildcats win a double-overtime thriller against 12-seeded St. Bonaventure. From there, Kentucky would suffer some of the most painful losses in school history whenever an NCAA Tournament game went into OT.
The first came in 2005 during the Regional Finals when Patrick Sparks hit his own miraculous buzzer-beating 3 against Michigan State to tie the game in regulation, but the Wildcats would go on to lose a double-OT heartbreaker to the Spartans. The next such occurrence came in 2019 in the Regional Finals when Kentucky fell to Auburn in overtime after sweeping the Tigers in the regular season. Then came arguably the worst postseason loss in school history in 2022 when 15-seeded Saint Peter’s took down 2-seeded Kentucky in the Round of 64.