AUBURN, Ala. — Antonio Reeves and Kentucky stripped away Auburn‘s aura of invincibility at home. And the loss may be more costly than just in the SEC standings.
Reeves scored 22 points and No. 22 Kentucky led throughout to beat cold-shooting Auburn 70-59 on Saturday night, ending the 13th-ranked Tigers’ 16-game home winning streak that had included two straight routs of ranked teams.
The Tigers (20-6, 9-4 SEC), who had been second in the conference behind No. 15 Alabama, lost their second-leading scorer, Jaylin Williams, to a right knee injury midway through the second half. Williams was helped off the court after going down underneath the basket and finished with just three points on 1-of-5 shooting.
Bruce Pearl, the Auburn coach, announced that Williams would get an MRI on Sunday.
Pearl stated, “We were in range when he got hurt.”
The Wildcats(18-7,8-4) answered to every challenge in the second half and limited Auburn to 30.9% shooting. A player taking over a pivotal game like Reeves did, according to Kentucky coach John Calipari, is a positive sign for the NCAA tournament.
“Today, it was Antonio,” Calipari declared. “It’s huge when one guy can go as well as he did in those games.
“We have multiple guys that can go and do stuff like that.”
For Auburn, Johni Broome and Chad Baker-Mazara each scored fourteen points. Denver Jones scored twelve.
Tre Mitchell missed time due to a left shoulder injury, so Adou Thiero started and finished with 14 points and 8 rebounds for Kentucky. Rob Dillingham scored eleven more points.
Ugonna Onyenso of Kentucky, who finished with seven points and eleven rebounds, said, “Going into the game, nobody believed we were going to win the game.” “Nobody really believed in us, so we came into the game with nothing to lose.”
