Kentucky’s Kyle Wiltjer drives against Auburn’s Allen Payne during an NCAA college basketball game on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2013, in Auburn, Ala. (AP Photo/Al.com, Julie Bennett)
JOHN ZENOR, AP Sports Writer
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) – Kyle Wiltjer scored 17 points for the second straight game and Kentucky held Auburn without a 3-pointer in a 75-53 victory on Saturday night.
The Wildcats (12-5, 3-1 Southeastern Conference) turned a five-point halftime game into a rout for their 14th consecutive win over the Tigers (8-9, 2-2) and 28th in 29 meetings.
Kentucky made 18 of 27 shots (67 percent) in its second straight hot-shooting performance after halftime.
The Tigers missed all 15 3-point attempts, making it only the third time they’ve been held without a 3. It was the first since going 0 for 14 at Mississippi on March 1, 1997.
Nerlens Noel made sure things weren’t much easier inside. Noel had 10 points, nine rebounds and seven blocks
Archie Goodwin had 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting and Ryan Harrow and Alex Poythress also scored a dozen.
Rob Chubb had 14 points and seven rebounds for Auburn. Frankie Sullivan scored 12 but was just 5-of-16 shooting and missed all six 3-point attempts. Allen Payne added 11 and Asauhn Dixon-Tatum 10.
The Wildcats had shot 65 percent after the half against Tennessee in a 75-65 win.
Wiltjer’s 17 points in those games is a career-high in SEC games for the sophomore. He made 3 of 6 from 3-point range against Auburn and hit both his long-range attempts in the second half.
His hot streak started after the key off-the-bench performer managed two points combined in the previous two games.
The Wildcats also outrebounded Auburn 43-30.
The Tigers’ ice cold shooting came three days after they made 11 3s in a double-overtime loss at Arkansas that snapped a three-game win streak.
They made 3 of their first 20 shots and hit 23 of 66 (35 percent) in the game. Kentucky started with a 2-of-14 shooting stretch but, unlike Auburn, eventually warmed up.
Wiltjer opened and closed a 14-4 run that gave Kentucky a 53-37 lead in the final 13 minutes. He started it with a 3-pointer and then hit a basket inside after waiting for an Auburn defender to sail by.
The Tigers, who trailed just 30-25 at halftime, never challenged again.
Kentucky eventually went ahead by as many as 27 points in the final minutes.
Chants of “Go Big Blue” then took over Auburn Arena as the defending national champions won for the third time in four games.
Auburn’s No. 2 scorer, Chris Denson, played for the first time in four games after recovering from a foot injury. He missed all four attempts and didn’t score in 13 minutes.
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.
8 Responses to Wiltjer, Kentucky rout cold-shooting Auburn 75-53
Leave a Reply
Blue Zoom Radio Show
Polls
Loading ...Choose Your Favorite!
This team played with the most energy and heart that we have seen from them yet this season. They gave full effort for the entire 40 minutes. I could not be happier or prouder.
Kyle was great for the second straight game and Nerlens may have had the greatest defensive 11 minute stretch in history before having to sit with his second foul.
This HAS to finally prove to these players that buying in and playing hard will carry you through, even when you aren’t shooting well. That first half would have been totally different if they hadn’t played so hard on the defensive end.
Auburn had few answers for how to handle UK’s defense and, once the offense started rolling in the second half, they had no answer for that either.
Color me impressed and starting to believe, once again, that this team is rounding the corner.
I forgot to give credit to Archie as well. He played the most in control game of his season. He made a huge difference as well.
Heck, everybody played extremely well.
I think it was important that Nerlen’s got in foul trouble early….It was the reason Kyle was in the position to show us and himself, that he can play a well rounded inside/out Game. I’d be tempted to play Kyle at Center and Nerlens at forward…it would help Kyle’s Game and he really is close to being a breakout Player for Us, ala, Josh Harrellson…aren’t you getting that feeling. The whole Team stepped up in support of Nerlen’s being on the Bench…Almost like “we got your back”, you always have Ours. And nice job Poulson, Mays threes, Archie was great, Alex, ” Had Fun “….
Larry T, I’m getting the feeling that we are seeing the start of a LOT of breakout performances. As solid as Archie and Alex played, they may be on the verge of realizing just how special they can be. This team was simply amazing last night.
The title of this article is a not my favorite either. Auburn was “cold shooting” because UK’s defense was really putting it on them. They weren’t as “cold” as UK’s defense was “hot”.
This game was another shining example of Cal’s “I’ll take talent over experience any day” philosophy. Thank God we have such a forward thinking coach.
They looked loose and were having fun, Kyle after some of those crafty passes or sort of no- lookers came back up court smiling kind of yucking it up. It was nice to see. Another point i’d like to make is, when they were interviewing Barkley , Charles mentioned how things were changing at Auburn for the better for its basketball program, then all the sudden toward the end of the game big blue chants took over the arena , well Charles it hasn’t changed completely yet, Uk fans still find there way in to smaller arenas and take over the decibel level. Also thought it was funny when Matt Daugherity asked Charles if he ever knew where the library was at. Good zinger there!
Personal shout out to Poulson for several great plays…especially hitting that lay up as time expired–great kid! Barkley is right on that none of our players are ready for the NBA, however, he was dead wrong Thursday night on Inside The NBA, when he announced he would be at the game and gave a fist shaking shout that the War Eagles would beat us. Hey Grant, I thought the library zinger left Charles with an expression similar to the one he had on his face the night Ernie Johnson rigged his prompter with the wording, “and I am a dumb ass,” while secretly recording it. If you haven’t seen it, check out You Tube and you’ll see what I mean—funnnnnny!
I’ve been saying for a while that Kyle needed time on the low blocks. He has been forced to play outside really. Now he was forced to play inside for once and he looked fabulous. His defense was respectable which is something that’s just hard to do if you’re 6’9″ and kinda slow of foot and playing the perimeter on defense. A good player will know how to take advantage of you being slower. That’s why everyone out there isn’t 7 foot tall. Sure there are lots of players that can play outside on D but not on the college level. Most of those guys are already playing pro ball and we call them stars.
Again I’ve said it for a while that Kyle needs some time playing inside. It will give him confidence, it will make the other team guard him with a big and that will free him up for long shots from 3 land. I know it’s been hard to get him PT inside with the likes of Noel and WCS around not to mention Alex but inside is where he belongs. Everything about his game against Auburn proved that.
I kinda agree with your thinking on Kyle, King…I liked seeing him posting up shorter players and utilizing his skills with his back to the basket, not to mention his passing talents. After watching the U of L/Cuse game, and how the Cards attacked the zone with their center at the top of the key, any experience that Kyle can continue to get inside will be helpful down the road…we’re going to be seeing a lot of zones. A team like Cuse has over 7 inside players 6’8″ or better and would cause us great havoc if we don’t make better use of Kyle’s passing skills. Coach Cal is getting him there-Go Cats!