By the Numbers: Kentucky's dominant win over Auburn

MrsTylerKSR

There’s the Kentucky Basketball team we’ve been waiting for. The Cats didn’t just beat Auburn today, they dominated the Tigers 86-54. Kentucky led by 11 at half and by 40 with 2:30 to go. It was the best performance of the season, and comes at just the right time, with Selection Sunday now only 15 days away.

We’ll have plenty of coverage of the win throughout the evening. Let’s start with some numbers from the box score that stood out to me.

— 22 & 17: Points and rebounds by Oscar Tshiebwe. Oscar had a double-double by halftime, his 44th at Kentucky. That moves him into third place on Kentucky’s all-time double-double list behind Dan Issel (64) and Cotton Nash (48). Oscar was 8-10 from the field today. In the past two games, he is 20-23 from the field. Pretty good.

— 41-23: Kentucky’s rebounding to Auburn’s. The Cats owned the glass, thanks in large part to Oscar Tshiebwe, who had 17 boards, and Jacob Toppin, who had 12.

— 36-22: Kentucky’s points in the paint to Auburn’s. Again, thanks, Oscar.

— 7: Double-doubles for Jacob Toppin this season. He had 12 points and 12 rebounds this afternoon.

— 16-4: Kentucky’s assists to Auburn’s. The Cats had 12 turnovers, but only four in the second half.

— +42: Cason Wallace’s efficiency, a team-high. All five of Kentucky’s starters finished with big numbers there: Antonio Reeves: +40, Jacob Toppin: +37, Oscar Tshiebwe: +36, Chris Livingston: +28

— 56.1%: Kentucky’s field-goal percentage, way up from the Cats’ season average of 45.9%.

— 33.9%: Auburn’s field-goal percentage. The Tigers came into the game averaging 44.0% from the field.

— 88-0: Kentucky’s record under John Calipari when holding its opponent to 55 points or less. The Cats are 231-24 (90.6%) in the Cal Era when their opponent shoots 40% or less from the field.

— 1.410: Kentucky’s points per possession. That’s second only to the win over Florida A&M in December (1.49).

More numbers below…