National Basketball Association
Kentucky 91, Auburn 67
When: 1:00 PM ET, Saturday, March 14, 2015
Where: Bridgestone Arena, Nashville, Tennessee
Officials:
# Mike Nance, # Doug Shows, # Olandis Poole
Attendance:
19232
By SportsDirect Inc.
No. 1 Kentucky 91, Auburn 67: Willie Cauley-Stein
had 18 points, seven rebounds and three blocked shots as the Wildcats dominated
an SEC tournament semifinal against the short-handed Tigers in Nashville, Tenn.
Andrew Harrison added 15 points and four assists
for Kentucky (33-0), which will face No. 20 Arkansas on
Sunday in the program’s 39th SEC championship game. The Wildcats
shot 56.3 percent from the field, hit a season-high 30 free throws in 35
attempts and enjoyed a 39-25 rebounding advantage to easily overcome 26 fouls.
Antoine Mason scored 23 points to lead 13th-seeded
Auburn (15-20), which had posted three upset wins to reach the semifinals but had to
play Saturday without suspended starters Cinmeon Bowers and Jordon Granger. Bowers,
the Tigers’ leading rebounder and third-leading scorer, was suspended due to a
potential rules violation Friday while Granger, the team’s second-leading
rebounder, was forced to sit out after receiving a Flagrant 2 fighting foul in
Friday’s quarterfinal victory over LSU.
Trey Lyles, Aaron Harrison and Devin Booker all
added 12 points to round out the double-digit scorers for Kentucky, which hit
7-of-14 3-pointers and had its third-highest scoring game of the season. Malcolm
Canada had 16 points, KT Harrell added 13 and Devin Waddell had a team-high
five rebounds for Auburn, which shot 33.3 percent from the floor but finished
25-of-34 at the free-throw stripe.
Auburn’s only lead came at 2-0 as Kentucky
quickly followed with a 15-2 run to go up by double digits. The Wildcats shot
57.7 percent from the field and hit 13-of-15 free throws in the first half to
take a 47-29 lead into intermission, and led by as many as 28 points over
the final 20 minutes while the Tigers never got closer than 13.
GAME NOTEBOOK: Kentucky improved to 39-2 all-time
in SEC tournament semifinal games. … Auburn, which was making its first SEC
semifinal appearance since 2009, fell to 3-9 all-time in the round. … The
Wildcats’ 33-game win streak became the longest in program history, eclipsing
the 32-game run from 1953-55.
Top Game Performances
| Auburn |
|
Kentucky |
|
Antoine Mason 23 |
Scoring |
Willie Cauley-Stein 18 |
|
KT Harrell 1 |
Assists |
Tyler Ulis 6 |
|
Devin Waddell 5 |
Rebounds |
Willie Cauley-Stein 7 |
|
KT Harrell 11 |
Free Throws Made |
Karl-Anthony Towns 8 |
|
Malcolm Canada 1 |
Steals |
Tyler Ulis 2 |
|
N/A |
Blocks |
Willie Cauley-Stein 3 |
Team Stats Summary
| Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
| Auburn
|
67 |
33.3 |
6-20 |
25-34 |
5 |
21 |
0 |
2 |
7 |
| Kentucky
|
91 |
56.2 |
7-14 |
30-35 |
17 |
36 |
7 |
4 |
10 |
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