Observations: Kentucky 70, Auburn 59
In an all-around rough night, the Tigers (surprisingly) went cold on offense at home and suffered what could be a major injury loss.
PF Jaylin Williams (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
Neville Arena was loud again.
After trailing Kentucky by 14 early in the second half, Auburn had gone on a 15-4 run to cut it to a 4-point game. The Tigers had the ball after a forced turnover and — more importantly — the momentum coming out of the under-12 timeout. Even with all of Auburn’s struggles, that trademark big at home felt like it might be coming soon.
Auburn ran one of the offensive actions it used to terrorize Ole Miss in its most recent second-half comeback: a high ball screen for the point guard with a roll-to-post, triggered by a “kickback” entry pass from a wing.
This one was called for Jaylin Williams, arguably the most valuable member of the Auburn offense and someone who had only scored three points in the first 25 minutes. But the pass was ripped out of Williams’ hands by Kentucky freshman phenom Reed Sheppard, who is a top-10 player nationally in steal percentage.
Kentucky quickly took the steal down the floor and got a fast-break bucket, pushing its lead back to seven. Auburn needed a counter. After the Tigers popped the ball back and forth to the open man, point guard Aden Holloway drew two defenders and dished a leading pass to Williams down the baseline.
Williams went for what would’ve been a massive dunk. Instead, he got contact from Kentucky rim protector Ugonna Onyenso — but not a foul — and the back of the rim. The ball bounced out and into the hands of a Kentucky defender, like it had done over and over again to end Auburn possessions.
The missed dunk was the latest example of the Tigers not being able to get their shots to fall, no matter if they were firing from the perimeter or trying to score at the rim.
But it was by far the most painful of those misses.
Williams landed awkwardly on the play, injuring his left knee. He wasn’t able to put any weight on it as trainers took him to the locker room, and he would not return to the game.
“He and Johni (Broome) are our two best players,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said afterwards. “We were in range when he got hurt. We think he's got to have something (done)… we think it's something. It's not just a ‘bang.’ He had (a) pivot. We'll do an MRI tomorrow, and then we'll take a look at it.”
Neville Arena was quiet. Auburn tried to rally, but it wasn’t the same after that.
“It's for sure hard, seeing a brother go down like that,” Auburn guard Denver Jones said. “Y'all know J-Will. He's a huge piece of this team. Us seeing that, of course we felt some type of way about it. But, at the end of the day, we still had a game to play.”
Kentucky would push its lead to nine points, then to 12 a few minutes later, then to 14 after the next media timeout. The Wildcats would lead by as many as 16 and eventually walk out with a 11-point win — the first road team in more than a whole year to beat the Tigers.
The 70-59 result was a stunner. It’s not just because Kentucky upset Auburn, but it’s how it happened.
A Kentucky team that had a bottom-half defense in the SEC by most metrics won a defensive slugfest over an Auburn team that had just put up its best game ever in terms of offensive efficiency three nights earlier, in the same building, against the league’s best scoring defense. The Tigers never led.
Auburn had its worst scoring performance at home in two years. It had its worst overall shooting performance — 17-55 (30.9%) from the field — at home in eight years. And it came against a defense that had given up 89 points or more in five of its seven losses this season.
The loss is a tough blow for Auburn, which is now two wins behind rival Alabama in the SEC title race with only five games to play. The Tigers were a No. 4 seed in the first NCAA Tournament bracket reveal Saturday morning, and now they only have one more Quad 1 opportunity in the regular season.
On top of that, Auburn might have to venture forward without a player whose performances have been extremely critical to the team’s overall success this season.
“Jaylin Williams is Auburn’s all time winningest player ever by a bunch of games, and he’s having a phenomenal senior season,” Pearl said. “And it’s not like I’m giving the scouting report away, but when Jaylin Williams has played well, we’ve won. And he’s only really not played well in about four or five games. Those happen to be the games we lost. The math’s kind of scary. Give Jaylin Williams credit.
“The depth on this team and the chemistry on this team… we’ll put it together. We’ll get something, we’ll be ready for the next one.”
Here are four big Observations from Auburn’s 70-59 loss to Kentucky, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Night.
PG Aden Holloway (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)