Jan 22, 2003

Box Score?|?Quotes?|?Notes?|?Photo Gallery

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) – Kentucky put on a defensive clinic against the Southeastern Conference’s best defensive team on Wednesday night.

Gerald Fitch scored 15 of his 16 points in the second half and Keith Bogans added 13 as the eighth-ranked Wildcats beat No. 24 Auburn 67-51 Wednesday night, its eighth straight victory.

The Tigers (15-3, 4-1 Southeastern Conference) lead the SEC in scoring defense and field goal percentage defense, but the Wildcats (14-3, 4-0) held them to 2-of-14 shooting from 3-point range (14 percent) and forced 26 turnovers.

“They took us out of the things we wanted to do,” Auburn coach Cliff Ellis said.

Auburn shot 38 percent overall, the fourth straight team Kentucky has held under 40 percent.

“We’re starting to take pride in our defense,” Kentucky forward Chuck Hayes said. “We’ve really been getting after it in practice, working on deflections and things like that. It’s really habit-forming.”

Jules Camara also had 13 points for the Wildcats, who are off to their best start in league play since the 1997-98 team won its first eight SEC games. That Kentucky team – coach Tubby Smith’s first – went on to win the program’s seventh national championship.

They have the best defense we’ve seen. Auburn forward Marquis Daniels

Marco Killingsworth scored 19 points to lead the Tigers, who had a nine-game winning streak snapped.

Leading scorer Marquis Daniels had 11 points for the Tigers, who lost to Kentucky for the 17th time in the last 18 meetings.

Several Wildcats guarded Daniels, but Smith said the most effective defender was the 6-foot-6 Hayes.

“We gave Daniels many different looks,” Smith said. “We could put a strong, bulky guy like Chuck Hayes on him. He may be quicker than Chuck, but Hayes was able to put his body on him and stop him from penetrating.”

Daniels, the SEC’s second-leading scorer, missed six of his first seven shots and finished 5-of-14 from the field.

“They have the best defense we’ve seen,” Daniels said. “They did a good job with their rotations and forced us into some turnovers. We had some breakdowns mentally.”

Fitch broke open a close game midway through the second half.

The Wildcats led 42-40 after Killingsworth made two free throws with 10:14 left. Fitch then hit a 3-pointer from the wing, scored on a drive, then hit another 3 in a two-minute span to trigger a 13-2 spurt.

Fitch missed his first six shots but made his last five to finish 5-of-11 for the game.

“I didn’t know why I was missing in the first half,” Fitch said. “I just wanted to regroup. The second half, I just tried to stay positive.”

Bogans converted a three-point play with 6:29 left to finish the run and give the Wildcats a 55-40 lead.

The Tigers went seven minutes without a field goal as the Wildcats pulled away.

Bogans moved past Ed Davender and into the top 10 on Kentucky’s all-time scoring list. The 6-5 senior guard has 1,649 points.

“Winning is most important right now. I’d rather win than score a lot of points,” Bogans said.

The Wildcats had few offensive highlights early, missing six of their first eight shots.

Auburn started 5-of-13 from the field but had six turnovers in the first nine minutes.

The Tigers went 10 minutes without a field goal but stayed in the game by hitting 10 of their first 11 free throws.

Lewis Monroe snapped Auburn’s long field goal drought with a runner with 2:46 left in the half. But Bogans had a 3-pointer from the top of the key and a baseline jumper in the final 2:30 to give Kentucky a 29-22 halftime lead, its biggest to that point.

The Tigers started the second half with a 9-3 run, hitting five of their first seven shots.

Auburn hovered within a basket until Cliff Hawkins hit a 3-pointer with 11 minutes left for a 42-38 lead. Killingsworth made two free throws to pull Auburn within two, but the Tigers got no closer.

“We played excellent defense for the most part,” Smith said. “We really focused in after a sluggish start – a lot of which had to do with Auburn.”