There were no silver linings in this one. Arkansas embarrassed Kentucky on its home court.

At halftime, it was anybody’s game.

Before the final TV timeout, it was a rush to the parking lot.

Kentucky walked into Rupp Arena on Tuesday night with a major opportunity to score the type of NCAA Tournament résumé-building victory that has been elusive for most of this topsy-turvy season.

The Wildcats walked off their home court on the losing end of a lopsided score: Arkansas 88, Kentucky 73. Following as intense a first half as Rupp has seen all season, the second 20 minutes of this one was about as frustrating as it gets from UK’s side of things.

“They were way better than us today,” John Calipari said afterward.

The Kentucky coach didn’t say much after this one. That pretty much summed it up.

When Daimion Collins nailed a jumper to beat the buzzer and set the halftime score — Arkansas 41, Kentucky 40 — it seemed like anything would be possible when the teams returned to the court 15 minutes later.

The first half had been a spectacle. Big plays and physical battles. For one stretch near the end of those first 20 minutes, Rupp Arena was as on edge as it’s been all season, both teams flying back and forth down the court, the crowd reacting to every play, cheering wildly for every UK basket and booing loudly for every perceived missed call against the Cats. It was sensory overload in the most entertaining sense, the frenetic pace stalled only when Calipari was hit with a technical foul for protesting a no-call with 33 seconds on the clock. That particular objection was neither his first nor his last, and the crowd of nearly 20,000 booed loudly as Arkansas freshman Anthony Black hit two free throws.

Before the no-call that drew Calipari’s ire — the final straw for head referee Terry Oglesby, who’d been subject to the UK coach’s complaining all night — Kentucky led 38-37.

After the ensuing basket and Black’s two free throws, Arkansas led 41-38.

The Razorbacks never trailed again.

Instead of a second half to match the intensity of the first, the Wildcats wilted during the final 20 minutes. As soon as the halftime break ended, UK’s breakdown began.

When Oglesby returned to the court for the second half, Calipari was waiting for him. The UK coach engaged in an animated conversation with the game’s lead official — shaking his head vigorously at times, gesticulating wildly at others — until assistant coach Bruiser Flint intervened and the two went their separate ways.

And when the ball was put into play, the Razorbacks ran away with the game.

Over the first two and a half minutes of the second half, Arkansas outscored Kentucky 11-3. Three of UK’s first four possessions out of the break ended in turnovers. And all three of those turnovers led directly to points at the other end. The score by then: Arkansas 52, Kentucky 43.

UK never made it a one-possession game after that.

“I was just so disappointed,” said Calipari, who called a timeout after Arkansas rolled off six straight points in 79 seconds to start the half.

“Giving them run-outs, giving them turnovers — that builds the other team’s confidence,” freshman Chris Livingston said. “Those are easy buckets for them, especially in a war-like game that we were in. That’s a tough battle, a tough fight. Any time you get easy opportunities, the team’s going to get energy. We put our heads down after we made mistakes like that.

“Those were really big, pivotal moments.”

Kentucky didn’t have many answers from there.

UK freshman Cason Wallace led the Cats with 24 points and five assists, playing all but 42 seconds of the game with fellow point guard Sahvir Wheeler ruled out with an ankle injury. Wallace also tied a career high with five turnovers. Kentucky had 15 of those for the game, nine after halftime.

Reigning national player of the year Oscar Tshiebwe struggled offensively yet again. Four days after scoring four points — on 2-for-14 shooting — in a win over Florida, the UK star had seven points and seven rebounds (and took just six shots) against Arkansas.

Tshiebwe was hounded in the paint, exposed on defense and seemingly frustrated by the physical play of the Razorbacks, who greatly limited his impact. This was just the second time in his UK career that he’s had back-to-back single-digit scoring games. The only time in his two seasons as a Wildcat that he’s grabbed fewer than seven rebounds was when he had six in a loss to Alabama last month, a game in which he was effectively benched.

“He’s gotta be better for us,” Calipari said after this one. “And he will be. He will be.”

Meanwhile, the Razorbacks couldn’t miss.

Arkansas shot 62.7 percent for the game and an astounding 72.0 percent in the second half.

“C’mon,” Calipari said. “You’re not gonna win a game if they’re shooting 72 percent.”

What was the key to the Razorbacks’ success?

“Just defense, bro,” Livingston said.

As in, a lack of defense.

Livingston said the ball-screen issues that have haunted Kentucky for most of this season were there again Tuesday night. The Razorbacks agreed, and feasted on the opportunities.

“We came into the game wanting to attack the pick and roll,” Hogs guard Davonte Davis said. “We knew that their coverages weren’t that good. Just knowing that Oscar wasn’t up to par on the pick and rolls. We wanted to just continue to attack the goal and feed the bigs rolling down to the paint.”

Arkansas was 17-for-22 on two-point shots in the second half.

As Kentucky lost control of the game, Calipari was losing it on the sidelines, spending most of his time yelling at whichever referee he thought could hear him best while his team fell into a deeper and deeper hole.

As Ricky Council IV drained two free throws to put the Hogs up 16 with 4:02 left, the aisles of Rupp Arena filled up, blue-and-white streams of disappointment heading for the exits. When the whistle blew for the final TV timeout about 30 seconds later, there was another mass exodus.

And by the time the clock hit zero, the Rupp Arena seats were mostly empty.

With the loss, Kentucky is now 1-7 in Quad 1 games, that NCAA-created measure of the toughest matchups a team can play. That record is also a major sorting tool on Selection Sunday, and UK’s tournament résumé still needs some prepping before that day comes.

By the time Arkansas Coach Eric Musselman made his way off the Rupp Arena court — he was practically skipping with delight — a relatively large group of fans wearing red and white had gathered near the tunnel. They were “Calling the Hogs” in the home of Kentucky basketball.

Musselman pumped his fists in their direction, high-fiving anyone who stuck out a hand before he disappeared into the tunnel. For the third time in the past four weeks, cheers and celebration poured out of the visiting locker room.

Livingston summed up the night from Kentucky’s point of view.

“It was just bad all around.”

Next game

Kentucky at Georgia

When: Noon Saturday

TV: ESPN

Radio: WLAP-AM 630, WBUL-FM 98.1

Records: Kentucky 16-8 (7-4 SEC), Georgia 14-10 (4-7)

Series: Kentucky leads 131-27

Last meeting: Kentucky won 85-71 on Jan. 17 in Lexington

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