Auburn’s NCAA Tournament hopes took a hit Saturday afternoon as the Tigers fell to Kentucky at Rupp Arena, 86-54.
With the loss, Auburn fell into a tie for fifth in the SEC standings with two games remaining in the regular season. The loss marked Auburn’s biggest defeat under head coach Bruce Pearl since Auburn’s 38-point loss to Tennessee in 2016.
“In order to play well, offensively and defensively, you have to play together, trust each other, and obviously as a team, we did not,” Pearl said.
Auburn kept up with Kentucky through the first 15 minutes of play and even had a 25-24 lead with 5:24 left in the first half after a Jaylin Williams putback dunk. But the Wildcats ended the half on a 16-4 run to take an 11-point lead into halftime.
The Tigers shot just 34% from the field in the first half despite starting the game 3-of-5. The team’s low shooting percentage mirrored how Auburn has shot the entire season as Pearl’s squad entered the game ranked 213th in field goal percentage at 44%.
Auburn center and leading scorer Johni Broome began the game hot — hitting a 3-pointer to score the first basket of the game and then hitting two more shots just a couple minutes later. But even with seven points inside of four minutes, Broome only made one more shot the rest of the game and finished with 12 points.
Pearl said that he “wasn’t sure” how Broome started the game off efficiently but faded as the game went on, but that his team needed to do a better job of getting him the ball as the Tigers only recorded one assist in the first half.
“If we only have one assist in the first half, it’s really hard to get Jaylin (Williams) or Johni going,” Pearl said. “You have to be able to pass the ball better, and we did not.”
Auburn’s second-leading scorer, Wendell Green Jr., also had a rough afternoon shooting as the junior shot 3-of-12 from the field. Green Jr. entered the game shooting just 36% from the field, and that number has dipped over the last five games in which the point guard has made 29.5% of his attempts.
Green Jr. came into the game fourth in the SEC in assists per game (4.3) but only assisted two baskets against Kentucky, half of the team’s total assist number.
“We go as Wendell (Green Jr.) goes,” Pearl said. “And obviously Wendell struggled, but he obviously did not have a lot of help.”
Auburn was outscored 46-25 in the second half and saw Kentucky’s lead climb to as high as 40 at one point. The Wildcats’ 86 points is the most Auburn has surrendered the entire season as Kentucky’s Oscar Tshiebwe and Antonio Reeves both scored over 20 and Cason Wallace poured in 19 points.
Auburn has now dropped five consecutive road games, giving it a 4-7 away record, and is 2-8 against Quad 1 opponents.
“It was a complete domination on both ends of the floor,” Pearl said. “And it really hurts our NCAA hopes because of the margins, so we have to regroup.”
Auburn will be back on the road Wednesday when it travels to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, to play No. 2 Alabama. The game tips off at 6 p.m. CST and will be televised on ESPN2.
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Jacob Waters is a junior majoring in journalism. From Leeds, Alabama, he started with The Plainsman in fall 2021.
Twitter: @JacobWaters_
