LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) — Jarquez Hunter had career highs of 278 yards on 23 carries and two touchdowns, including the go-ahead score in the third quarter, Payton Thorne passed for 172 yards and a score and Auburn rallied from a 10-0 deficit with 24 unanswered points to beat Kentucky 24-10 on Saturday night.
After four consecutive losses that included blowing double-digit, fourth-quarter leads against Missouri and Oklahoma, the Tigers (3-5, 1-4 Southeastern Conference) overcame an early deficit with Hunter’s punishing runs and Thorne’s arm. Hunter put Auburn up 17-10 with a 1-yard scoring run midway through the third before blasting a 45-yard TD early in the fourth for a 14-point cushion.
The senior topped his previous highs of 183 yards last November against Vanderbilt and 20 carries against New Mexico on Sept. 14. His total is the fourth-best single-game performance in school history and he moved past Brent Fulwood into sixth among Auburn career rushers with 3,033 yards.
Hunter passed several guys on that career list: Fulwood (2,789), Stephen Davis (2,811), Tank Bigsby (2,903) and Tre Mason (2,979).
“Every play I got, I tried to take advantage of my opportunity and I tried to wear them out,” said Hunter, who also had a 50-yard run late in the third.
Guiding it all was Auburn coach Hugh Freeze, who did not travel with the team on Friday because of a stomach illness but flew up Saturday morning. A football spokesman said Freeze became ill on Friday and experienced nausea, but he recovered to participate in the Tiger Walk into Kroger Field and go through his normal pregame routine before watching Auburn dominate the final 51 minutes.
“It would’ve really been miserable for everybody if I tried to travel with them yesterday,” Freeze said afterward. “But nothing was really different other than I missed the Friday night meetings.”
Thorne completed 20 of 26 passes including a 6-yard score to KeAndre Lambert-Smith in the second quarter to start the remarkable comeback. The Tigers outgained Kentucky 498-224, including 452-140 over the final three quarters, to win their 10th consecutive trip to Lexington dating back to 1966.
Kentucky jumped to a 10-0 lead on its first two drives on Alex Raynor’s 46-yard field goal and freshman Jamarion Wilcox’s 2-yard TD run, but the Wildcats (3-5, 1-5) dropped their third consecutive game and fifth in seven.
“Bottom line, we got beat,” Kentucky coach Mark Stoops said. “Didn’t play good enough in any phase for us to win, and that’s discouraging. It didn’t surprise me that they were going to play hard. We just have to match that.”
The Wildcats tried to come back late in the fourth and drove down to the Auburn 3, but three runs gained just one yard before Kayin Lee intercepted Gavin Wimsatt at the goal line and returned it nine yards before going out of bounds.
Jay Crawford had Auburn’s other interception, picking off Brock Vandagriff midway through the second quarter to set up Alex McPherson’s game-tying 27-yard field goal.
Could’ve had more
Auburn didn’t let up once it found its rhythm, though it wasn’t quick enough and missed out on one scoring opportunity as the first half wound down. Thorne was sacked for a seven-loss at the Kentucky 14 with 7 seconds left and the Tigers immediately tried to set up for a field goal, but time ran out before they could snap the ball.
The takeaway
Auburn: Whether this salvages their shaky postseason hopes remains to be seen. The Tigers got a needed lift from their slide and did so in lopsided fashion on both sides of the ball.
Asked how important that was after the losses, Freeze added, “Just to see them happy and their continuous hard work to be gratified with the feeling of an SEC win on the road. And for coaches, particularly to go through the type of losses we have.”
Kentucky: Just as the Wildcats seemed poised to put last week’s collapse in Florida behind them, they rang up another dud and jeopardized their bowl hopes.
Up next
Auburn hosts No. 25 Vanderbilt on Saturday before its second bye of the season.
Kentucky visits No. 7 Tennessee on Saturday.
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