Auburn basketball stumbles offensively against Kentucky, Tigers drop first home game
AUBURN — Scoring wasn't supposed to be the problem for Auburn basketball. Not against Kentucky.
The Tigers, coming off a game in which they hung 101 points on what's been statistically the SEC's best defense in South Carolina, shot 30.9% in their matchup with the Wildcats (18-7, 8-4 SEC) on Saturday. The shots, which were often open, didn't fall for an a team searching for its third Quadrant 1 win of the season.
Auburn (20-6, 9-4), as a result, was handed a 70-59 loss. It's the first defeat of the season in Neville Arena for the Tigers, who were the only team in the conference left without a blemish on their home resume. Auburn is now in third place in the SEC, half a game behind No. 2 Tennessee and 1.5 games behind league leader Alabama.
The Tigers are 2-5 in Quadrant 1 opportunities, the worst mark for a team rated in top 20 of the NET rankings.
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The Wildcats entered Saturday's contest making 40.7% of their 3-point attempts, a rate that's No. 1 in the SEC and 33rd nationally. They began against Auburn by missing their first three looks from deep, and they only had three makes by halftime.
But the struggles for the Tigers were worse — 3-for-14 in the first half — and they were unable to capitalize.
Bad to worse
Auburn went into halftime down by 10 points and started the second half by missing a shot, allowing a second-chance basket on the other end and turning the ball over once getting it back. The turnover led to Tre Donaldson earning a flagrant foul.
The Tigers kept scrapping — the deficit was chipped down to five at one point — but the Wildcats had an answer every time.
Stolen opportunities
Kentucky was able to force 11 turnovers and Auburn logged 12, but the Wildcats were more prolific at turning those takeaways into buckets. Kentucky had 23 points off of turnovers compared to 10 from the Tigers.
Next up on Auburn basketball's schedule
The Tigers enter their open week, which means they won't take the court again until they go on the road to play Georgia on Feb. 24 (5 p.m. CT, SEC Network). The Bulldogs have lost six straight.
Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn basketball loss to Kentucky marred by offensive issues
