Kentucky men’s basketball (17-9, 8-5 SEC) is set to take on the Auburn Tigers (14-12, 5-8 SEC) on Saturday night inside Neville Arena in Auburn, Ala.
Both sides enter the contest in the midst of losing streaks, each seeking to get back in the win column as February fades out and tournament season dawns in.
The Cats:
UK is heading into “The Jungle” on the back of a two-game losing streak, falling to No. 14 Florida 92-83 on Feb. 14 and Georgia 86-78 on Feb. 17.
Senior guard Otega Oweh, who leads the Wildcats on offense with 17.4 points per game, is coming off a 28-point outing against the Bulldogs, where he also grabbed four rebounds and dished out four assists.
Oweh has scored 20-plus points in six of Kentucky’s last seven games.
Freshman center Malachi Moreno is averaging a team-high 6.5 rebounds per game, and with that, the seven-footer is averaging 8.4 points per game as well, which is the fourth most on Kentucky’s roster.
Kentucky is averaging 81.5 points per game, ranking 10th in the SEC. On the other end, UK gives up an average of 72.7 points per game, which is the third-best in the SEC behind Tennessee (69.2) and Florida (71.1).
The Cats are fighting for a strong seed in both the SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament as well, so a road win in Auburn would clearly help, obviously depending on the outcome of the last four regular-season games that they have scheduled.
The Tigers:
Auburn will look to defend its home court while facing a five-game losing streak, having fallen to Tennessee, Alabama, No. 19 Vanderbilt, No. 21 Arkansas and, most recently, Mississippi State on Wednesday night.
The Tigers are guided by senior forward Keyshawn Hall, who is averaging a team-high 21 points per game and seven rebounds per game as well.
Hall is coming off a 29-point, 10-rebound double-double against Mississippi State, so one would assume that he is feeling the rhythm ahead of Saturday night.
KeShawn Murphy leads Auburn in rebounds per game with an average of 7.2, and he is also averaging 10.8 points per game, which is the fourth most on the Tigers.
Auburn is scoring 84 points per game, which ranks eighth in the SEC. Defensively, the Tigers allow 79.5 points per game, which is 15th (second-to-last) in the SEC.
ESPN currently gives Kentucky a 41.2% chance to win. Tipoff for Saturday’s contest is set for 8:30 p.m. ET and can be viewed on ESPN.
