By Keith Taylor
Kentucky Today
Auburn coach Bruce Pearl wasn’t sure what to expect against Kentucky Saturday.
“I was prepared to win, but I was also prepared to lose, which I’ve done a lot in this building,” said Pearl after only his second win in Rupp Arena.
This time, fate was in Pearl’s favor.
Auburn, which hadn’t beaten Kentucky at Rupp Arena since a last-second bucket propelled the Tigers to a 53-52 upset of then-No. 1 Kentucky in 1988, left with a win and a share of the Southeastern Conference championship with a 94-78 victory.
Kentucky coach Mark Pope said his team’s performance against the Tigers was “pretty disappointing.”
“We struggled,” Pope said. “… We’ve actually been making strides, but we regressed a little bit tonight”
Kentucky, which was without third-leading scorer Jaxson Robinson for the fourth time in the last five games, struggled against the Tigers, especially on the offensive end of the court. Later in the day, there would be more bad news about Robinson.
The No. 17 Wildcats 19-10, 8-8), committed 18 turnovers and made a season-low four 3-pointers in 17 attempts.
Robinson will have surgery this week and will miss the rest of the season. Pope said Robinson opted to have surgery on Friday night after running out of possible options for a quick recovery. Pope added recovery will take three months.
For Jaxson’s teammates, it’s the next man-up mentality.
“I think everybody has the mindset of stepping up and helping whenever they possibly can and be able to get better throughout the season, as tough as it is for Jaxson,” Kentucky forward Andrew Carr said. “We all try to be there for him and we know he would kill and die to be out there with us right now. Everybody knows that we need to go out there and do it for him, if not for anything else. People are going to step up for us and for Jaxson.”
The absence of Robinson on Saturday, combined with double-digit turnovers, were a recipe for disaster for Kentucky. The Tigers capitalized on Kentucky’s miscues while knocking down 12 shots from long range.
The Tigers (27-2, 15-1 SEC) did a lot of scoring in transition with 21 points off Kentucky’s miscues. The Wildcats had four straight turnovers in the first three minutes of the second half.
“It was more of a manifestation of I think the stress that we were feeling and feeling sped up because none of them were forced,” Pope said. “We just drove the ball out of bounds. You can give credit to Auburn for that.
“They got us to the hole and and you can put the blame for that on me. I wasn’t able to get the guys to a place where we could just kind of be present in the execution mode. That’s what happens when you get under duress.”
Otega Oweh, who scored a career-high 28 points in Kentucky’s 83-82 win at Oklahoma last Wednesday night, scored just four against the Tigers. Koby Brea picked up the slack with four treys and 21 points, followed by Carr with 20.
Lamont Butler added 15 points, while Amari Williams posted a double-double with 13 points and 14 rebounds.
Despite holding Auburn’s leading scorer Johni Broome to just nine points — nine below his average — Kentucky couldn’t contain Miles Kelly, who made nine 3-pointers and finished with 30 points.
“I don’t think our defensive intensity was where it had to be, letting their three guards go up the way that they did,” Brea said. “I put that on us, the guards, we’ve got to do a better job. We will do a better job, most importantly. But yeah, that was the biggest factor.”
Gametracker: LSU at Kentucky, 7 p.m., Tuesday. TV/Radio: ESPN2, UK Radio Network.