Neville Arena fell silent when Jaylin Williams fell to the ground. In all this swell, all this rise toward one of the most monumental home basketball games in Auburn, all this crowd energy hanging on to last-ditch comeback effort, all turned to a sudden and stunned silence.

Williams was down. He had gone up for a dunk with just over 10 minutes left in No. 13 Auburn’s eventual 70-59 loss to No. 22 Kentucky and came down awkwardly on his right leg, his knee bending.

He stayed down for several minutes. When he was helped up to be taken off the floor, he couldn’t put weight on his right leg at all. He was taken into the locker room. He didn’t return.

A stunned Neville Arena crowd turned to one of concern.

Suddenly, much more than an impending loss amid a dismal shooting display on Auburn’s home floor was at play. Auburn (20-6, 9-4) now had the cloud of the winningest player in program history facing a legitimate question if he’ll be able to return to this floor in uniform again.

The severity of the injury remains uncertain, but Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl did not appear hopeful about Williams’ status.

“We think he’s got to have something,” Pearl said after the game. “We think it’s something. It’s not just a bang, he had pivot.”

Pearl said Williams will have an MRI on Sunday. On Auburn’s postgame radio, Pearl mentioned Williams’ miniscus, but did not have any certainty that was what doctors were examining.

While examinations and evaluations continue, Pearl is now preparing to reshape a basketball team that may not have Williams for a long time, if at all.

“If Jaylin’s out, we’re going to have to figure some things out,” Pearl said. “I think we have guys that will step up. But Jaylin Williams is — he and Johni Broome are our two best players. So if he’s out for a little while, it’s got to be next man up. That’s a significant loss.

Williams is Auburn’s second-leading scorer at 13.4 points per game. As a forward, he has the second most 3-point makes on the team. He has the second-most rebounds on the team as well.

Only center Johni Broome has played more minutes than Williams this season — by one minute.

“It’s for sure hard, seeing a brother go down like that,” Auburn guard Denver Jones said. “Y’all know J-Will. He’s a huge piece of this team. Us seeing that? Of course we felt some type of way about it. But, at the end of the day, we still had a game to play. We’re still praying for J-Will.”

So now comes Pearl’s question: how to reshape his game plan without Williams?

Auburn’s basketball team has resembled a hockey team at times with its frequent rotations and sometimes full-line changes. Taking Williams out — a crucial player in the rotation — not only takes out one of Auburn’s most productive players and half of arguably the SEC’s best front-court, but also drastically shifts the existing rotation.

Chaney Johnson — who transferred to Auburn before this season from Division II Alabama-Huntsville — now seems in line to start.

Pearl has suggested his Auburn team has two of every position, but he’s now down to one at power forward.

Auburn already gives up height to several teams in the SEC — which was been quite notable in losses to Kentucky and Florida — and now could lose both size and depth if Williams is out.

Auburn has hardly ever played Broome and fellow center Dylan Cardwell together. It’s possible that might be an option. Forward Chris Moore — who generally plays small forward — may play more power forward out of necessity. Auburn could also look to reserve forward Addarin Scott — who transferred to Auburn from Navarro College, a junior college in Texas — to get expanded minutes.

Scott has not played more than two minutes in any game this season, all coming in the closing minutes of blowout wins. He has 19 total minutes this season.

Pearl’s next media availability is set for Monday. That likely is when the next update on Williams’ injury status will come.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]