Observations: Auburn 75, Kentucky 74

A last-second tip-in ended a long losing streak, kept Auburn on the right side of the bubble and snatched another memorable win over Kentucky.

AUBURN — Of course the putback didn’t go down.

Why “of course?” Because Auburn had blown another multi-possession lead in the final minutes of a game it needed to win to help its fading NCAA Tournament chances.

Why “of course?” Because Auburn just doesn’t win close games this season, as the Tigers entered Saturday night 1-4 in games decided by four points or fewer.

Why “of course?” Because Auburn couldn’t finish at the rim, having missed 17 layups officially and several more unofficially — like this one with two seconds left.

So, of course KeShawn Murphy couldn’t get his shot to fall. It didn’t matter that he was playing one of the best games of his life, scoring a career-high 25 points. It didn’t matter that he had perfectly beaten his man to get his 10th rebound of the game and his eighth on the offensive glass. It didn’t matter that he had a clean look at it.

In a season filled with frustration, Auburn looked in that moment like it was going to let another opportunity slip away, drop its sixth straight game and fall right off the bubble. The late offensive foul drawn by Kevin Overton — who was back on the ground and getting his face stepped on — was going to be squandered.

But Elyjah Freeman had time to save a teammate, save a game and save a season.

“I really can’t tell you, I don’t know why I missed that,” Murphy said. “It probably just should’ve been a dunk. But E-Free on the glass saved me, bro.

“That’s what teammates do. That’s what we do, man.”

As one Observer subscriber excellently put it afterwards, the visual of Freeman following behind Murphy for his own tip-in with a little more than a second left on the clock looked like Superman with his trusty cape.

Murphy had been Auburn’s hero all night long, yet he needed something flying behind him to finish the job. With his gifted blend of an elite wingspan and a jaw-dropping vertical, Freeman followed up the miss by tapping the ball back over the rim.

This one actually went down. Auburn now had a 1-point lead on Kentucky. The Tigers were finally in position to rip the hearts out of their opponents for a change.

“My mindset was basically just go to the glass and, whatever comes off, just make a play,” Freeman said. “We trusted Murph on the rebound. He's supposed to make that, but we’re good. Ended up just following over, and something good happened.”

Kentucky had a chance at an even more miraculous finish. With Freeman jumping up and waving those game-winning arms in the face of the trigger man, a Hail Mary pass to the other end of the floor was contested in the air by Murphy.

Kentucky’s 7-foot freshman phenom Malachi Moreno couldn’t catch it cleanly through Murphy’s sky-high deflection, and the clock ran out without a buzzer-beater attempt by the Wildcats.

“We kind of knew what they were going to run at the end of the game,” Auburn head coach Steven Pearl said. “We saw Moreno do it against LSU. He almost caught it again. And, fortunately, he kind of bobbled it, and we were able to win the game.”

Auburn’s 75-74 win over Kentucky was the program’s first 1-point victory since it beat Northwestern in a rather inconsequential non-conference rock fight inside a Mexican resort hotel ballroom in November 2022.

This one, though, meant so much more. Auburn likely couldn’t afford a sixth straight loss and yet another missed opportunity to get a quality win at home. If the Tigers wanted to stay in the NCAA Tournament field for now, they needed to win this one.

“It was crucial,” Pearl said. “It was a game that we had to have. Obviously, we've kind of played our way into a bubble situation… Hopefully only winning by 1 moves (Kentucky) up a spot, and we can keep it as a Quad 1, because every Quad 1 win is obviously important. That's going to be our fifth of the season — which is significant, because a lot of the teams on the bubble don't have that many.

“So, huge win for us, but it means nothing if we don't prepare for Oklahoma with the same desperation that we prepared with tonight.”

Auburn won with the same desperate formula it used when it reeled off four straight after a 1-3 start in SEC play: Defense, paint control and just enough timely offense.

It wasn’t the high scoring that we’ve gotten used to seeing from these Tigers. But, then again, we’ve seen them lose several games with plenty of offensive fireworks.

“Tonight, with the team we played and the situation we're in, we just left it all on the court,” Freeman said. “Not the best shooting night, but we were able to pull it out.”

Survive and advance. It’s the only way Auburn gets a chance to make noise in March.

Here are four Observations from Auburn’s 75-74 win over Kentucky, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and Quote of the Night.

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

You’ve gotta start with the defense in this one