AUBURN | Just about everything went wrong for No. 13 Auburn Saturday night at Neville Arena.
The Tigers shot a season-low .309 from the floor including 4 of 22 3-pointers in a 70-59 loss to No. 22 Kentucky, ending AU’s 16-game home unbeaten streak.
“Kentucky can guard and they can turn it up when they want to. They out-played us tonight,” said AU coach Bruce Pearl. “We held them to 70. They average 90. So we played hard and made some plays defensively.
“Their ball pressure disrupted us. Our point guards didn’t have an assist and maybe had just one basket.”
Auburn's worst shooting performance in eight years drops its record to 20-6 overall and 9-4 in the SEC.
“We were getting the shots that we wanted,” said shooting guard Denver Jones, who had 12 points. “But it was just one of those nights our shots weren’t falling.”
The game took a turn for the worse midway through the second half when fifth-year senior Jaylin Williams went down with a knee injury on an attempted dunk.
"We think he's got to have something. It's something," said Pearl of Williams' injury. "Not just a bang. He had a pivot. So we'll do an MRI tomorrow and take a look at it."
The Wildcats led by as many as 16 points in the second half. AU cut the lead to five points with 13:10 left but UK guard Antonio Reeves made back-to-back driving layups to stop the run.
Reeves led all scorers with 22 points.
"Reeves has killed us every year. He’s a big guard that can make shots," said Pearl.
Broome led AU with 14 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks, his 10th double-double of the season and 56th of his career. Chad Baker-Mazara also had 14 points.
Point guards Tre Donaldson and Aden Holloway combined for five points on 1 of 8 shooting. Donaldson was limited to 11 minutes after picking up his fourth foul early in the second half.
Kentucky led 39-29 at the break after Auburn shot just .281 from the floor including 3 of 12 3-pointers. UK scored 15 points off six AU turnovers in the first half, and 23 off 11 for the game.
Auburn gets a week off before playing at Georgia next Saturday at 5 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
