Kentucky opened SEC road play tonite against the Auburn Tigers. Darius Miller started in place of Doron Lamb. Perhaps Cal wanted some more senior leadership on the floor with the freshman phenoms as they got their first taste of SEC hospitatlity (or perhaps Doron needs to set his alarm and get back in the Breakfast Club).
Kentucky came out looking like this might be the first complete 40 minute game they would deliver in quite some time (if at all, so far this season). Auburn played tough though, driving the basketball and out-rebounding the Cats 29-25. In the end, it was Kentucky’s first complete game of the season. Completely mediocre that is, as they shot 40% from the field. This was as much a product of settling for jumpers as it was not hitting them.
Anthony Davis was the story for UK, with 14 points, 6 rebounds, 4 blocks, 3 steals and 2 assists. One day he is going to take over for Dwight Howard, like Dean Cain did for Christopher Reeve.
Marquis Teague sank a couple clean 3 pointers early, hopefully he doesn’t fall in love with doing so. He finished with 12 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and 3 turnovers.
Darius Miller hit a deep 3 at the halftime buzzer over multiple defenders to give the Cats a four point lead heading into the locker room. I agree with Cal, why doesn’t he want to do that all the time?
Terrence Jones continued his re-emergence, fighting for the basketball and making good decisions when the ball was in his hands. He finished with 12 points, 5 rebounds, and 3 steals.
In the second half, the Tigers continued to play solid defense and you could see the frustration building for the Wildcatsin their first SEC road test. It took Kentucky until almost the last 7 minutes of the game to really be able to start to break Auburn’s zone D.
But a major difference for UK in the second half was their own defense as they shut Auburn down for a 7 minute stretch with no field goals.
Auburn worked the clock for the entire second half, not even beginning to run plays until the shot clock approached single digits.
With the game approaching the last 5 minutes, it finally began to feel like Kentucky would get a little separation as Doron Lamb hit a big 3 to quiet the Auburn crowd (he finished with 14 pts.). This was followed by a Darius Miller 3 which gave the Cats their biggest lead of the night until then, at 8 points.
In the end, the Cats played what could be there most persistent game of the year. They came out with a W on the road, 68-53. (1 point short of covering the spread, #cantcovercats)
