JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- Everywhere Fletcher Magee turned, there was a hand in his face, a body in his way, a relentless wave of blue that was intent on making sure he never found any alone time.
Kentucky totally and completely shut down the most prolific three-point scorer in Division I history.
Thanks to that stifling defensive effort, the Wildcats are moving on in the NCAA Tournament.
Magee missed all 12 attempts from long range in his final college game Saturday, and Kentucky held off Wofford 62-56 in the second round of the Midwest Region.
"We wanted to make him put the ball on the floor and make a basketball play," said freshman guard Ashton Hagans, one of the players tasked with shutting down the Wofford gunner.
Mission accomplished.
Reid Travis scored 14 points, grabbed 11 rebounds and made two huge free throws with 17.8 seconds left to help seal the victory for second-seeded Kentucky (29-6). But Coach John Calipari knew the key to this game was at the defensive end.
"If they hit a normal amount of threes, they probably beat us," the coach said, savoring his eighth trip to the Sweet 16 in a decade as the Wildcats' coach.
Wofford (30-5) certainly had its chances, limiting the Wildcats to 40 percent shooting (21 of 52) and holding its own on the boards.
But Magee simply couldn't make a shot, which was even more stunning since he had hit seven less than 48 hours earlier in a victory over Seton Hall, the night he eclipsed the Division I record for career three-pointers.
After his 12th and final attempt ricocheted wildly off the rim, skipping out of bounds in front of a stunned Wofford section, Magee rubbed his head in seeming disbelief.
A dirty dozen, indeed.
"I'm still kind of in shock," Magee said.
He insisted that his looks weren't that much harder than what he normally gets in the Southern Conference. But something was a little off, and Kentucky's defensive pressure appeared to wear him down by the final horn.
It was only the second time all season that Magee failed to make at least one shot from long range, following an 0-for-9 performance at Kansas in early December.
"It just doesn't seem right to end on a game going 0 for 12 from three," Magee said. "If I go 3 for 12, we win the game. I'm not sure how that happens. I'm sure I won't get over it for a while."
The rest of the Wofford roster went 8 of 15 from three-point range. Nathan Hoover made four of them to finish with 19 points and Cameron Jackson chipped in with 11 points. Magee finished with 8 points on 4-of-17 shooting overall.
AUBURN 89, KANSAS 75
SALT LAKE CITY -- The Auburn Tigers are headed to the Sweet 16 for the first time in 16 years.
Bryce Brown scored 25 points and hit 7 three-pointers, leading Auburn to a takedown of mighty Kansas.
The Tigers (28-9) were a surprise last season, earning a share of their first SEC title since 1999 and winning an NCAA Tournament game.
Unlike their opener against New Mexico State, when they had to survive a couple of late-game blunders, the fifth-seeded Tigers pounced on the undermanned Jayhawks and never let them up.
Auburn had a 17-point lead before the midpoint of the first half and kept pouring in shots, hitting 13 three-pointers while shooting 53 percent against one of college basketball's premier programs.
The Jayhawks (26-10) hoped they would get the ticket to Kansas City, where they would essentially play Sweet 16 home games as the No. 4 seed. But Bill Self's bunch got gut punched early and never climbed off the canvas.
Auburn is one of the nation's best at creating turnovers and Kansas is one of the worst at coughing them up.
A bigger problem for Kansas was the Tigers ran their offense like a Formula One car. Whipping quick passes around to set up open shots, Auburn made 6 of its first 8 three-pointers to race out to a 17-point lead in the opening eight minutes.
With Kansas having to extend its defense, the inside opened up for the Tigers, who made 20 of 36 shots to lead 51-25 by halftime. Brown was 6 of 8 from three-point range and had 17 points by the break.
Sports on 03/24/2019