Kentucky shows fight at the end but drops to 4-8 after loss at Auburn
On Friday, Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl spoke of Kentucky as a formidable opponent.
“We’ll have to play our best game of the year to beat Kentucky,” he said.
Well, that wasn’t necessary. But Kentucky made Auburn earn its 66-59 victory Saturday.
Trailing by 10 with barely five minutes left, and by eight inside the final three minutes, Kentucky closed to within 60-58 with 59.4 seconds to go.
Devin Askew led the charge, scoring or assisting on three straight baskets.
But Auburn held on by making four of four free throws in the final 18.7 seconds.
Kentucky fell to 4-8 overall, which was only the fourth time a UK team lost eight of its first 12 games. The first three came in 1910, 1923 and 1926-27. The Cats fell to 3-2 in the Southeastern Conference.
Auburn, which got a big boost by Sharife Cooper’s improved play in the second half, ran its records to 8-6 overall and 2-4 in the SEC.
John Calipari has said he enjoys victories that come despite poor shooting. By that standard, he had to like the first half.
Kentucky was up 25-21 despite making only eight of 24 shots.
Auburn shot it even worse before the break. The Tigers made only eight of 33 shots, which included 2-for-17 on its signature three-point attempts.
Cooper, the player the Auburn team is built around, missed all eight of his first-half shots (four coming from three-point range). He had three assists and two turnovers in a pedestrian first half in which he was mostly guarded by Askew or Jacob Toppin.
Kentucky took its first lead on a Dontaie Allen three-pointer with 13 minutes left. Except for a 47-second period when Auburn was ahead 17-16, UK led the rest of the half.
Anyone looking for an omen to signal a Kentucky victory might have focused on a three-pointer made by Brandon Boston with 6:01 left in the first half. He had made only six of 37 previous shots from beyond the arc. This one gave UK a 14-8 lead.
With Kentucky leading 25-21 at halftime, the ESPN announcing crew pointed out that it was only the second SEC game this season in which neither team scored 30 points in the first half.
Auburn came into the game averaging 77.2 points. That average was 92.5 points in the two games in which Cooper played.
Auburn did not reach 30 points until the 14:32 mark of the second half.
Auburn came out in the second half driving more than shooting threes. The Tigers matched their 21 first-half points less than 10 minutes into the second half.
A three-pointer by Devan Cambridge put Auburn ahead 46-43 with 10 minutes left. That put UK behind for the first time since 2:48 remained in the first half.
A basket by Cambridge off a fast break put Auburn ahead 48-43. UK called time with eight-plus minutes left to ponder its largest deficit.
The timeout didn’t help. After Davion Mintz made a three, UK committed three straight turnovers. Auburn converted two of them into transition baskets to extend the lead to 56-46.
That prompted another Kentucky timeout, this time with 5:36 left.
Next game
Kentucky at Georgia
7 p.m. Wednesday (SEC Network)
This story was originally published January 16, 2021 at 4:26 PM.
