AUBURN, AL — With just under seven minutes remaining Saturday night, it finally happened: Two makes at the free throw line from forward Mouhamed Dioubate gave Kentucky basketball‘s bench eight points.
And with that, the Wildcats’ reserves had more points (eight) than personal fouls (six). UK’s backups finished with eight points and seven fouls while shooting 3 for 11 as a group.
Auburn‘s bench wasn’t dominant in that department, finishing with 16 points. But it was Tigers reserve Elyjah Freeman who delivered the game’s biggest moment, converting a putback layup with 1.4 seconds remaining to lift AU back from a late deficit to earn a 75-74 victory at Neville Arena.
UK’s lack of pop from its non-starters was costly for the second time in as many games, and Saturday’s loss made unwanted history for Kentucky (17-10, 8-6 SEC). It’s the first time under coach Mark Pope, in his second season at his alma mater, that the program has dropped three consecutive contests.
On the other side of the coin, Auburn (15-12, 6-8) snapped a five-game losing streak under first-year coach Steven Pearl.
In UK’s 86-78 setback to Georgia at Rupp Arena on Tuesday, its reserves had been similarly underwhelming. UGA’s bench outscored its counterparts by 21 points (29-8).
After that loss, Pope cited a need to turn to his backups more often, specifically stressing the need for starting senior guards Otega Oweh and Denzel Aberdeen to have a breather from time to time.
For now, Pope has to grapple with a double-edged sword: Giving Oweh, Aberdeen and the rest of the starting five a breather each game is crucial … but the lineup gives way to a quartet (Dioubate and fellow forwards Brandon Garrison and Trent Noah, along with guard Jasper Johnson) that simply isn’t providing much in the way of production.
Which Saturday’s result reinforced in the most painful way for Pope.
But that wasn’t his focus after Saturday’s loss.
Instead, Pope preferred to opine on officiating.
“Well, we’re not allowed to talk about the referees. But you guys saw it,” said Pope, referring to an offensive foul called on guard Collin Chandler with 14 seconds remaining and Kentucky ahead 74-73. “I think sometimes it’s just super personal. So, I’m not allowed to comment on the referees. I won’t comment on the referees.”
Except he continued to do just that throughout his postgame news conference — skillfully avoiding directly stating anything about the striped-shirt men with whistles around their necks.
Take this comment about Oweh.
“What he overcame and who he overcame tonight, a lot of times it felt like he was playing 1-on-7,” Pope said before correcting himself to add one more. “One-on-eight.”
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out Pope was implying Oweh didn’t just face the five Tigers on the floor at all times; in Pope’s view, Oweh also was wrestling with the trio of referees.
“Multiples times we could have won it,” Oweh said during a postgame interview with UK’s radio network, shortly after he’d posted a career- and game-high 29 points. “I felt like we’d be beating ourselves, but we just got a bad whistle at the end. We’re playing physical all game, ain’t calling out one push-off, then they call a push-off (on Chandler) trying to create space.”
What UK must try to engineer now is another victory.
In the middle of the program’s longest skid since it lost four in a row in the forgettable 9-16 campaign of 2020-21, Pope said he doesn’t have to lend his players a pick-me-up message.
They know the task at hand.
“We’re coming to compete,” he said. “We’re a little short-handed right now, but we have control over winning and losing. I thought the guys put together a great effort tonight and we didn’t get the win.
“So now we go to work on Tuesday and go get the win. That’s what we do. We’re not sitting here trying to consider nonsense. We’re trying to win games.”
Addressing the bench’s shortcomings will be far more beneficial in accomplishing that objective than a futile feud with officials.
Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Kentucky basketball vs Auburn score, UK Wildcats lose in final seconds