Lexington, Ky. – Auburn took to the floor against the Kentucky Wildcats in search of their first win in Lexington in 35 years. When all said and done, Auburn would not be able to make the shots that were needed, causing the Tigers to fall short by a score of 86-54.
“Auburn was not competitive at all tonight,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said.
It was a hard-fought battle early on between the two teams. The highly anticipated matchup between Johni Broome and Oscar Tshiebwe wasted no time getting started.
Despite the paint presence of Broome that forced two shot clock violations early on, Tshiebwe would show why he is one of the best forwards in the country, as he would finish with a double-double before the first half was over.
Tshiebwe would continue to dominate the paint for the remainder of the game with no answer from Auburn in route to finishing with 22 points and 17 rebounds.
Jaylin Williams would set Auburn up for success with a put back dunk off a missed shot midway through the first half which led the Tigers on a 6-0 run to keep the score close. In addition, the senior made a couple of crucial three pointers in the first half, but cooled off in the second, only scoring three points.
Even with the effort early on from Williams, Auburn would fail to convert shots consistently throughout the game, finishing the night with only 19 makes.
“Offensively you have to try and work together to make each other better, which we did not,” Pearl said.
Kentucky took control of the game late in the first half, going on an 8-0 run that would set up an 11 point lead for the Wildcats.
“No one likes to come apart like that,” Pearl. “We have been in every game on the road in tough places and tonight things came apart.”
The lead was built in big part due to the effort behind the three-point line. Kentucky would feed off the long rang ball early, going 5-for-6 in the first half. Defending three pointers would continue to be the weakest point for Auburn, as the Wildcats would continue to hit shot after shot, finishing 8-for-13.
Coming out of the break it was much more of the same as Kentucky would pick up right where they left off, putting together a 7-0 run to build the lead to 16 points.
Rebounds were a big concern for Auburn during this time as they only were able to collect three compared to Kentucky’s 16 rebounds. This trend continued throughout the game as Kentucky finished with 41 rebounds, much in part to the physical play imposed.
“They were much more physical than we were and played that way on both ends of the floor,” Pearl said. “They are bigger and stronger at every position. Their physicality we were no match for.”
Due to the lackluster rebounding, Auburn did not fare well in transition at all. Kentucky was able to score 27 points on the break, many of which no Auburn player was past halfcourt.
“For the first fifteen minutes I thought we played well defensively, and transition hurt us throughout the last four minutes and then the entire second half,” Pearl said. “I thought one of the keys was their guards being able to get downhill on us and drive it past our guys.”
Johni Broome would come out of the gate hot, but it would not last long. The center would score nine points in the first half of the game. However, the troubles would start shortly into the second half, as two quick fouls saw Broome head to the bench within the first five minutes. After coming back into the game, Broome seemed nonexistent at times and had no real impact.
“When you only have one assist in the first half it is really hard to score many more buckets,” Pearl said. “You have to get your big involved and we did not do a very good job of getting him involved like we did early in the game.”
Auburn will focus their sights on the Iron Bowl of basketball. The Tigers will travel to Tuscaloosa to face off against Alabama this coming Wednesday. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. with broadcasting on ESPN2.
