The Troy Trojans’ (23-11) magical season came to a frustrating finish with a loss to the Kentucky Wildcats (23-11) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in Milwaukee, Wis., on Friday.

Troy took a 3-0 lead in the opening moments on a three-pointer from Marcus Rigsby Jr., but Kentucky quickly tied things up and the two sides slugged it out for the first 10 minutes of the game with two lead changes and four ties. The back half of the first 20 minutes was all Kentucky, however.

The Wildcats outscored Troy 11-3 in the final 4:15 of the half with the Trojans scoring one field goal during that stretch. Kentucky led 35-27 at halftime.

The second half was more of the same. The Wildcats opened with a three-pointer in the second half and led by 22 points midway through the half. Troy wasn’t ready to pack it in, however. The Trojans marched on a 9-0 run that cut the Kentucky lead to 61-48 with 5:38 remaining. Kentucky got hot again, though, and went on an 12-0 run of its own to put the game out of reach.

Troy shot just 34.9 percent in the contest and 25 percent from the three-point line, while Kentucky shot 47.5 percent from the field and 38.5 percent from beyond the arc. Troy did force 10 turnovers, all of them steals, but turned the ball over 11 times themselves. Kentucky narrowly won the rebound battle 39-38 but also outscored Troy 34-24 in the paint.

Myles Rigsby led Troy with 17 points, seven rebounds and a steal, while Tayton Conerway tallied 12 points, four rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block. Thomas Dowd grabbed 11 rebounds and earned three steals. Kentuck was led by Otega Oweh with 20 points, eight rebounds, six assists and two steals. Amari Williams grabbed 13 boards and dished four assists, while Andrew Carr scored 13 points and blocked three shots.