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Kentucky remains perfect with win over Auburn

Mar 14, 2015 - 11:06 PM Nashville, TN (SportsNetwork.com) - Kentucky had five players reach double figures as the No. 1 Wildcats cruised to the SEC Tournament final with a 91-67 win over the Auburn Tigers.

Willie Cauley-Stein led the way for Kentucky (33-0) with 18 points while Andrew Harrison totaled 15. Aaron Harrison, Trey Lyles and Devin Booker scored 12 points apiece.

"It started on the defensive end and just carried over to the offensive end," said Cauley-Stein. "I'm going to lock down on defense and then if offense happens, then it happens. Today it just happened."

The Wildcats will look for their first SEC tourney championship since 2011 Sunday against No. 21 Arkansas. The Wildcats topped the Razorbacks by an 84-67 score in their only meeting in the regular season.

The 13th-seeded Tigers (15-20) had a tough time with Kentucky's size with their top-two rebounders, Cinmeon Bowers and Jordon Granger, missing the game.

"We obviously knew we had our hands full," said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl. "For our guys, we were undersized and undermanned, but we have been that way all along. I'm just proud of the way my guys competed."

Antoine Mason paced all scorers with 23 points for Auburn. Malcolm Canada chipped in 16 points and K.T. Harrell netted 13.

After Canada hit the first shot of the day to put Auburn up 2-0, the game went downhill for the Tigers. Both Aaron and Andrew Harrison would hit 3-pointers over the next minute, and the game would not get closer.

Aaron Harrison drained a 3 during a 9-0 run that extend Kentucky's lead to 24-8. The Wildcats would lead 47-29 at the break after Andrew Harrison hit a jumper with 18 seconds to play in the half.

Auburn was just 1-of-11 from long distance over the first 20 minutes.

Cauley-Stein's shot at 18:13 of the second half put the Wildcats up 20 for the first time in the game, but Auburn promptly went on a 10-3 spurt to make the score 55-42 with just over 15 minutes remaining.

That woke up Kentucky, which only yielded two points to Auburn over the next five minutes. Cauley-Stein finished an alley-oop courtesy of Booker with a power dunk and free throw to complete the 3-point play and give Kentucky a 71-44 lead.

Lyles' layup with under seven minutes to go gave Kentucky its largest lead of the game at 28 points, 79-51.

Game Notes

Kentucky's 33-game winning streak is the longest in school history ... The Wildcats outrebounded Auburn 39-25 ... Bowers was suspended due to a potential rules violation while Granger was ejected from Friday's quarterfinal against LSU and then suspended for throwing a punch ... Kentucky totaled 17 assists while Auburn only had five.