Auburn men’s basketball scored 94-78 win over Kentucky Saturday to clinch a share of the Southeastern Conference title and did it without its starting point guard for most of the game.

Denver Jones left the game in the first half with an ankle injury, a knock that head coach Bruce Pearl later revealed to be a bone bruise. Pearl said postgame that Jones got an X-ray during the game and is “going to recover” from the injury.

He added that Jones’ injury is not season-ending, but didn’t give a timetable for Jones’ return.

“Good news, it was X-rayed, bone bruise, so he’s going to recover from it,” Pearl said. “But he’s a tough kid. I was worried he had a bone break or something.”

Despite losing Jones early on, Auburn still dominated, winning in Rupp Arena for the first time since 1988. Freshman point guard Tahaad Pettiford was Jones’ replacement and finished with 21 points and four assists on 6-for-10 shooting from the field.

“Tahaad’s been great. He’s got great courage. As a freshman, the seniors have done a great job of kind of embracing him,” Pearl said. “To play the entire game with having [Lamont] Butler guarding him at times and not have a turnover is incredible.”

Auburn and Jones won’t have much time to rest and recover for their next game, facing Texas A&M on the road Tuesday night. That matchup is scheduled to tip off at 8 p.m. and will be televised on ESPN.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m