March 6, 1999
By PAUL NEWBERRY
AP Sports Writer
ATLANTA (AP) – The regular season may have been disappointing by Kentucky’slofty standards. Still, don’t count out the defending national champions justyet.
The No. 14 Wildcats moved within one victory of another SoutheasternConference tournament title, jumping out to an early lead against No. 4 Auburnand cruising to a 69-57 victory in the semifinals Saturday.
The Tigers, who won their first regular-season championship since 1960, wereclearly out of their element against the Wildcats, who have won two straighttournament titles and six of the last seven.
“Our guys have been here before,” Kentucky coach Tubby Smith said.”There’s not a lot you can do coaching-wise at this point. It’s all aboutreaching inside. The heart and competitiveness we showed today goes prettydeep. The pride in wearing that Kentucky uniform carries a lot of weight.”
The burden was too much to bear for the cold-shooting Tigers (27-3), wholost to Kentucky for the second time this season. Auburn fell into adouble-digit hole less than six minutes into the game and never recovered.
Shooting only 30 percent (21-of-70) from the field, the Tigers trailed by 10or more points through most of the game and may have cost themselves a top seedin the NCAA tournament.
“It was very simple,” coach Cliff Ellis said. “They hit more shots thanwe did.”
Kentucky (24-8), which had its most regular-season losses since the 1989-90season, advanced to the Sunday final against No. 22 Arkansas or MississippiState.
“We felt like we had a lot to prove in this game” said Scott Padgett, whoscored 13 points and did a superb defensive job on Auburn star Chris Porter.”A lot of people have written us off. They say we’re not the Kentucky of pastyears. Obviously, we didn’t have the regular season we wanted to. But I stillfeel like this team will do a lot in the (NCAA) tournament. Our goal is to winanother national championship.”
The Wildcats set the tone against Auburn from the opening tip, hitting theirfirst three attempts from outside the 3-point arc and building a 17-6 lead whenHeshimu Evans scored on a fast-break layup with 14:25 remaining in the firsthalf.
Though Kentucky made only 4-of-17 attempts from 3-point range the rest ofthe way, it didn’t matter. The Wildcats have won 22 of 23 tournament games,including eight in a row, while Auburn stumbled in its first semifinalappearance since 1991.
The Tigers missed 17 of their first 20 shots and fell behind 26-9 whenfreshman Desmond Allison connected on his second 3-pointer just past the midwaypoint in the half.
“We just couldn’t get over the hump,” Ellis said. “Today, it belonged toKentucky. I think they’ll go a long way. I think we will, too.”
The only thing that kept the game from turning into a total blowout wasKentucky’s poor shooting from the free-throw line. The Wildcats missed 10-of-15before making 9-of-12 down the stretch to secure the victory.
After the opening minutes, Auburn got as close as six points on twooccasions, the last coming when Doc Robinson’s 3-pointer sliced Kentucky’s leadto 51-45 with 7:01 remaining.
But Allison hit a hanging jumper in the lane as the shot clocked ran out,Michael Bradley scored on a drive and Jamal Magloire put back a miss by WayneTurner to push the margin back to 57-46. Kentucky led by at least 10 the restof the way for its 14th consecutive victory over Auburn since 1990.
“We’re showing signs of being a great team,” Magloire said. “I alwayssaid we were a good team, but if we play defense we have the potential to be agreat team. We showed that today.”
The Wildcats won 72-62 in Lexington during the regular season after Auburnstarted out with 17 consecutive victories.
Five players scored in double figures for Kentucky, led by Turner andPadgett with 13 apiece. Turner, who had a career-high 24 points in thequarterfinals, also had seven assists and four rebounds.
Doc Robinson and Jay Heard paced the Tigers with 14 points each.
Porter, the SEC player of the year, was shadowed by Padgett anddouble-teamed much of the game. The Auburn forward was held to 12 points on4-of-11 shooting and managed just two offensive rebounds.
“We tried to put a body on him every time a shot went up,” Padgett said.”If you don’t do that, you’re going to wind up watching him on SportsCenter.”
Kentucky improved to 12-0 at Georgia Dome, which has become the next bestthing to Rupp Arena for the Wildcats.
