Auburn would not go away, and senior T.J. Dunans did all he could to keep it close, but eventually the Wildcats from Kentucky were too much for the Tigers on Saturday afternoon.
An Austin Wiley bucket gave Auburn the first points of the contest, and the Tigers were only down by one at the first media timeout at the 15:00 mark.
Things quickly changed.
After starting 3-10 from the field, the Wildcats came alive, and knocked down eight of nine to give themselves a double digit lead. The two teams traded baskets at points late in the first half, but Kentucky's Malik Monk and De'Aaron Fox lead the wildcats into the lockeroom with a 51-39 lead at the break.
"Kentucky has a great team and play really well together," said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. "They are tremendous in transition, and they keep getting better and play well together."
It looked as if John Calipari's squad would cruise to an easy victory lead by their talented backcourt, but Dunans had other plans.
Dunans took over for the Tigers, and scored in a variety of ways while Auburn was on a 12-2 run and within four points of Kentucky with 12:25 to play. Dunans finished with a career high 22 points, followed by Mustapha Heron's eight points.
The career night from Dunans would not be enough for Pearl's squad.
“We competed. We didn’t challenge Kentucky, but we competed. We have a good young team, and we will keep getting better. We beat Texas Tech. We beat UConn. We beat Oklahoma. We are getting close.”
After Auburn's run, Wildcat guard Isaiah Briscoe rattled off five straight points to push Kentucky's lead back to nine. Kentucky never looked back. Briscoe finished with 10 points for the Wildcats, and Monk finished with a game high 24 points.
“I felt like we fouled them too much,” said Pearl. “They got in the bonus in the second half in five minutes and made it very difficult for us to get back in the game. Fouls are errors. You can’t miss 10 free throws and expect to put a scare into them.”
Tiger loss drops Auburn to 11-6 overall and 1-4 in conference, while the Wildcats improved to 15-2 overall and 5-0 in the SEC.
Auburn will return home to take on LSU in Auburn Arena on Wednesday. The contest can be seen on the SEC Network, and tip-off is set for 7:30 p.m. CST.
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