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.
Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said Williams would have an MRI on Sunday.
“We were in range when he got hurt,” Pearl said.
The Wildcats (18-7, 8-4) held Auburn to 30.9% shooting and responded to every challenge in the second half. Kentucky coach John Calipari said having a player take over a big game like Reeves did is an encouraging sign for the NCAA tournament.
“Today was Antonio,” Calipari said. “When one guy can go do what he did in those games, it’s huge.
“We have multiple guys that can go and do stuff like that.”
Johni Broome and Chad Baker-Mazara scored 14 each for Auburn. Denver Jones scored 12.
Adou Thiero, who started while Tre Mitchell was out with a left shoulder injury, had 14 points and eight rebounds for Kentucky. Rob Dillingham added 11 points.
“Coming into the game, nobody believed we were going to win the game,” said Kentucky center Ugonna Onyenso, who had seven points and 11 rebounds. “Nobody really believed in us, so we came into the game with nothing to lose.”
Broome’s layup cut Auburn’s deficit to five points with about 13 minutes remaining. Then Reeves took over, scoring 13 of Kentucky’s next 17 points. When he was done, the Wildcats were up a game-high 16 points, 64-48.
Reeves said he was determined to play physical down the stretch and Auburn had little answer for his drives.
“I just got it going after that, and the guys looked for me at the end of the game,” Reeves said.
Kentucky’s Justin Edwards fouled out with four points.
The Tigers struggled after dominating No. 11 South Carolina 101-61 on Wednesday night, following an 18-point win over the Crimson Tide. Broome and Williams combined for nine 3-pointers versus the Gamecocks but missed all five attempts on Saturday.
“Kentucky can guard and they can turn it up when they want to, and they outplayed us tonight,” Pearl said. “We knew their guards were excellent and late in the game when it came down to just getting decent shots and keeping us at bay, they were able to do that.”
Calipari told reporters that he planned to head to Indianapolis for the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday. Seven of his former players were selected.
“The most ever from one school in an All-Star Game was four — that’s by us,” Calipari said. “So we’ve got seven.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.