FAYETTEVILLE -- The SEC did not provide a lot of drama Saturday in a rare day of blowouts in league play.
The average margin of victory in seven conference games played Saturday was 16.3 points. Only two games were decided by less than 14 points, both featuring road winners. LSU shaded Ole Miss 80-76 with a late 19-9 run, and Kentucky got past Arkansas 73-66 with a 15-0 spurt after Coach John Calipari's ejection with 8:19 remaining.
The biggest shocker came courtesy of Florida, which drilled defending SEC Tournament champion and No. 4 Auburn 67-49 in Gainesville, Fla. The Gators extended their winning streak in the series to 13 consecutive games at ExacTech Arena.
Auburn, which entered last week as one of two unbeaten teams in Division I, lost at Alabama and Florida to fall out of first place in the SEC. The Tigers lost back-to-back games for the first time in nearly a year, since falling at LSU (83-78) and Ole Miss (60-55) on Feb. 9 and Feb. 13 of last season.
"I'm disappointed with our play," Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl said. "It's the time of the year when we should be trying to elevate our play, and we're not.
"Obviously, there's a pretty big price on our head being ranked fourth in the country. And so I think we have to respond to the step-up that we saw this week from both Alabama and Florida."
Feel Payne
Florida's Omar Payne went 9 for 9 from the floor, scored 19 points and had 11 rebounds -- all career highs -- during a 69-47 rout of No. 4 Auburn on Saturday.
The 6-10 freshman from Kissimmee, Fla., had been averaging 4.3 points and 4.1 rebounds per
game before the breakout performance.
Florida posted its first win over an AP top five team since taking down No. 2 Michigan State on Nov. 27, 2009. It was the Gators' first home win versus a top 5 team since beating No. 3 Ohio State on Dec. 23, 2007.
"I guess this shows what we're potentially capable of," Florida Coach Mike White said. "I don't think that was Auburn's best performance, but I don't want to take anything away from our guys. We're such a young team that I don't know how many of those we'll get."
Free spree
Missouri broke an SEC record by going 31 of 31 at the free-throw line in its 88-74 loss at Alabama on Saturday.
The Tigers made the most free throws in a game without a miss in league history, beating the previous record of 27 by Florida in 1994. The Tigers previous school record streak of consecutive made free throws in a game had been 23.
Missouri's 31 of 31 performance tied for the fifth-most in NCAA history. Oklahoma holds the record at 34 of 34 on March 2, 2013, against Iowa State.
The Tigers' top free throw shooters against the Tide were Xavier Pinson (9 of 9) and Dru Smith (7 of 7), while Mark Smith and Reed Nikko each went 4 of 4.
Showdown coming
The seventh year of the Big 12/SEC Challenge will take place Saturday with the SEC hoping to post its second win in the series.
The Big 12 holds a 35-25 advantage in the series, paced by Baylor's 5-1 mark. Kansas, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU and Texas Tech all hold 4-2 records. Iowa State and Texas are both 3-3. West Virginia, with a 1-5 record, is the only Big 12 team with a losing record in the challenge.
The SEC won the matchup 6-4 in 2018 after tying at 5-5 in 2017.
The best SEC records belong to Tennessee (4-1), Florida (4-2) and Alabama (2-1) the only SEC teams with winning records in the challenge. Kentucky, at 3-3, is the only other SEC school with three wins. Arkansas (2-3), Georgia, Texas A&M and Vanderbilt have two wins each.
Florida and Kentucky are the only SEC schools to have played in all of the previous challenges.
The Mississippi schools have taken a pounding, with Ole Miss (0-6) and Mississippi State (0-1) yet to post a win.
The highlights of this year's challenge are No. 1 Baylor at Florida, No. 15 Kentucky at No. 18 Texas Tech, Iowa State at No. 16 Auburn and Tennessee at No. 3 Kansas.
Boos for 2s
Vanderbilt fans did not react well to the sight of their program's historic three-point streak coming to an end at Memorial Gym on Saturday.
Late in the Commodores' 66-45 loss to arch-rival Tennessee, when the outcome had been decided, the home fans booed when Vanderbilt players passed up three-point tries to take shots inside the arc. The Commodores had been one of three Division I teams, along with Princeton and UNLV, to make a three-pointer in every game since the rule was instituted for the 1986-87 season.
Vanderbilt's streak ended at 1,080 games in the 34th season of the three-point shot with an 0 for 25 performance against the Vols.
"The fans were more concerned about the 3s than us really even getting baskets," first-year Vanderbilt Coach Jerry Stackhouse said.
"I felt for those kids. The real streak that we want to end is the losing streak."
Vanderbilt lost its 22nd consecutive SEC regular-season game since a victory at Ole Miss on March 3, 2018, two shy of the SEC record held by Sewanee. The Commodores host Alabama on Wednesday, then face South Carolina on the road in their next two games.
The Commodores missed a trio of three-point tries in the final minute. Wright sank a three-point try in the second half, but it was waved off due to a shot-clock violation.
Top players
Mississippi State's Reggie Perry and South Carolina's Jermaine Couisnard were selected as SEC players of the week on Monday.
Perry, a 6-10, 250-pound sophomore, averaged 22.5 points, 11 rebounds, 3 assists and 1 steal in the Bulldogs' wins over Missouri and Georgia. Perry is the only SEC player averaging a double-double this season.
Couisnard, a 6-4, 244-pound guard from East Chicago, Ind., was chosen as SEC freshman of the week after averaging 21.5 points, 3 assists, 2.5 rebounds and 1 steal in wins over Kentucky and Texas A&M. Couisnard scored 26 points, including the game-winning three-pointer, in his first career start in the Gamecocks' win over Kentucky last Wednesday.
Bully blowouts
Mississippi State is on a major roll heading into Wednesday's home game against Arkansas. The Bulldogs blasted Missouri 72-45 in their mid-week game, then throttled Georgia 91-59 on Saturday.
That represents a combined winning margin of 59 points last week for Mississippi State, which downed back-to-back SEC opponents by 25 or more points for the first time since 1946-47.
The Bulldogs whipped Florida 55-24 and Auburn 61-35 in back-to-back games 73 seasons ago.
Hack and harm
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey reprimanded Mississippi State Coach Ben Howland and imposed a $25,000 fine Friday for publicly commenting about private communications with the conference office.
Howland made the remarks last Monday after the Bulldogs' 60-59 loss at LSU when asked about the body language of forward Reggie Perry during the first half.
"He had a play where he was holding the ball one-handed and the guy just absolutely whacks his arm, and there's a no-call and it goes the other way and they score," Howland said at his weekly news conference. "I called Mark Whitehead about it, and he admitted that it was a terrible no-call. The official who had the call was required to protect the offensive player. It happened right in front of him."
Whitehead is the SEC coordinator of men's basketball officials.
Howland wasn't through.
"I'd have bad body language, too," he said. "You've got to go back and look at it. There are multiple plays where the league office suggested where there was not the right call, including with 1:13 left when Abdul [Ado] got up to shoot and they block it from behind. It's not a jump ball. Bad call. You live with them and it's just what we've got to deal with."
The SEC warned that future violations of the league's code of ethics could result in additional penalties, including a one-game suspension, for Howland.
Wayward eyes
Five SEC teams shot 40% or worse during losses Saturday, including two teams who hit 26% or less.
Vanderbilt shot a pitiful 23.5% in its 66-45 home loss to Tennessee. The trio of Dylan Disu (2 of 13), Maxwell Evans (1 of 9) and Jordan Wright (1 of 6) combined to go 4 of 28 (.143).
Auburn shot 25.5% in the No. 4 Tigers' 69-47 loss at Florida. The Tigers were 4 of 23 (.174) from 3-point range.
Missouri made 19 of 61 shots (.311) in an 88-74 loss at Alabama.
Arkansas connected on 19 of 57 shots (.333) in its 73-66 home loss to Kentucky.
Georgia shot 22 of 56 (.393) during a 91-59 loss at Mississippi State.
Sports on 01/21/2020