Kentucky beat No. 19 Texas Tech 76-65 on Friday night, a result that gave the Red Raiders a ranked loss in an exhibition and handed Kentucky a clean-looking win before the season starts. Kentucky led 37-33 at halftime, then used a late first-half surge to open enough space to finish the job at Rupp Arena.
That is why people are searching the Texas Tech score now: it was not just another preseason tune-up. Kentucky turned a top-25 opponent away after Texas Tech had already shown why it came in with a national profile, and the game had a sharp early edge before the pace settled. Grant McCasland has taken Texas Tech to the NCAA Tournament in each of his first three seasons, and the Red Raiders reached the Elite Eight in 2025, which made this a useful early test for Kentucky even without a regular-season result attached to it.
The numbers tell the story of how Kentucky pulled clear. Texas Tech had seven turnovers with nine minutes left in the first half, while Kentucky had one, and the Red Raiders turned those early mistakes into nine points. Kentucky was careless with the ball at first, but it steadied enough to go on a 15-0 run late in the half. Alex Wilkins hit a pair of 3-pointers that helped push Kentucky ahead by nine points with under three minutes to play before halftime, and Milan Momcilovic kept the pressure on with 15 points on only five shots, including another pair of triples.
By the end, Kentucky had only 11 total turnovers, a sign that the game changed when the mistakes stopped feeding Texas Tech. The win should not be dismissed just because it came in an exhibition; it was Kentucky's second of three scheduled tuneups before the season officially tips off, and it came against a Big 12 opponent that entered the night ranked No. 19. Kentucky is next scheduled to play UCF on Oct. 28 at 6:00 PM ET on the SEC Network before opening the season against Manhattan on Tuesday, Nov. 3.
