AUBURN, Ala. — Kentucky playing Auburn Wednesday night was supposed to be akin to a bowling ball crunching a peanut. But Auburn proved to be a hard nut for UK to crack.
Although Coach Tony Barbee had said 29- and 30-point losses during the past week had shaken his team's confidence, Auburn showed remarkable resilience.
Kentucky needed a late run to beat the Tigers 68-53, proving Coach John Calipari's oft-repeated contention that no road victory can be assumed. Not even this one.
Afterward, Calipari said, he turned to his assistant coaches with about 10 minutes left and put words to the growing possibility of a stunning upset loss.
"This has nothing to do with stats, boys," he said he told the staff. "We're going down."
Then, with an announced sellout crowd of 9,121 watching in cozy Auburn Arena, UK outscored the Tigers 19-4 inside the final 10 minutes to improve to 16-1 overall and 2-0 in the Southeastern Conference.
That rally, which Calipari attributed to execution, did not erase the fact that Kentucky was outrebounded (35-29) for only the fourth time — and second straight game. Auburn also became the first opponent to outscore UK in the paint (36-30).
"They wanted it more than we did," Calipari said. "They played with a desire we didn't have."
Auburn (10-6 and 0-2) did not look like the team that had posted the league's two lowest-scoring performances and two worst-shooting displays of the season — in a 65-35 loss at Vandy last weekend and a 64-43 loss to Long Beach State in December.
"Aloof" is how center Rob Chubb described Auburn in those two losses. "The intensity (against UK) is what got us going."
Doron Lamb and freshman Anthony Davis led a balanced UK attack with 14 points each. Marquis Teague and Terrence Jones added 12 each, and Darius Miller scored nine.
Miller's three-pointer at the buzzer gave Kentucky a 32-28 halftime lead. That marked UK's largest lead in the final 15 minutes of a surprisingly competitive first half.
Twenty-eight points marked a scoring explosion for Auburn, which had scored 19 and 16 points during the first halves of its past two games.
Five times in Barbee's two seasons as coach, the Tigers scored 19 or fewer points in the first 20 minutes.
Led by Chubb, Auburn hung in there with Kentucky.
Chubb surpassed his scoring average (9.7 ppg) with 10 first-half points and finished with 14. He went at Davis with quick hook shots from the post, seeming to surprise the nation's leading shot blocker with the decisive moves.
Chubb's tip-in with 1:09 left put Auburn ahead 29-28. The Tigers trailed 38-19 at Vandy and 50-16 at Florida State at intermission during its past two games, and had led at halftime only once since Dec. 22.
Ten offensive rebounds, part of a 21-11 first-half edge on the boards, enabled Auburn to enjoy a stunning 22-10 advantage in points from the paint.
Kentucky had not been outscored from the paint all season, and it enjoyed an average advantage of 40.5-24.0.
"They really outhustled us on the boards," Davis said. "At the end, we tried to get every rebound when it mattered."
A tip-in by Davis with 51.8 seconds left in the half put Kentucky ahead 29-28.
After Auburn came up empty on a final possession that included two offensive rebounds, Miller hit a three-pointer from near the top of the key at the buzzer to make it a four-point margin. Miller held a pose at the spot of the shot. He crouched and looked toward the UK bench.
As in the game's opening minutes, Kentucky began the second half well. The Cats expanded their lead to 39-33 barely two minutes into the half. Lamb's three-point play in transition set that margin.
Yet, Auburn refused to, if not lose, go away.
The Tigers matched the 35 points they scored at Vanderbilt last weekend on a Ward layup with 17:29 left.
When Gabriel's basket reduced UK's lead to 39-37, Kentucky called time with 16:39 left. It didn't help.
The Cats scored only one basket during the next five minutes. When Auburn took a 45-43 lead on Chris Denson's layup, Kentucky called another timeout with 12:18 left.
In a game like this, Kentucky had to scrap to break the basketless span and inch ahead. A tip-in by Davis with 11:26 left began a streak of three straight second-chance scores that put UK ahead 49-47 for good with 8:04 left.
A three-pointer by Lamb with 5:09 left gave the Cats a 54-49 lead to nurse to the finish line.
After Kidd-Gilchrist recovered to block Frankie Sullivan's layup, Miller hit a three-pointer with 3:38 left to put Kentucky ahead 57-49. That marked UK's largest lead to that point.
Barbee saw the difference as one team possessing clutch players.
"They have them and they made them," he said of the Cats. "We don't and we didn't."
