Auburn Basketball finds their deep shot in a commanding Home win over Colgate
AUBURN started strong with a first half that was dominated by an unusually strong offense and efficient shooting, something the Tigers have struggled to put together all season long.
The hot shooting night started early with a 3 point shot by Flanigan followed by KD Johnson (who went 3 for 3 from deep). At the height of the half, the peak of the shooting was at 75% from 3PT after a nice shot by Zep Jasper off of some great ball movement. Auburn went into half shooting 58% from 3PT (never dropping below 50%), shooting far better from deep than they had all season (26.6% before this game). Even with a fairly comparable size-matchup, Auburn ended the first half with 0 blocks.
Despite this very strong showing in shooting in the first half, Auburn could not afford to relax. The team had shown tendencies last season (and on into this season) to have massive cold streaks scoring to follow their hot ones (against all levels of competition). The story here would be “could that shooting consistency stay steady to match this team’s very strong defensive play they have displayed all season.”
We would find that answer early in the second half. Not even 2 minutes into the period, Wendell Green Jr. hits another 3, followed by two makes from Flanigan, and another from KD Johnson minutes later. After that, the average for the 2nd half leveled back out to a more typical 30%; Auburn ended the game with a season high of 45% behind the arch. Ironically, Chris Moore (who currently leads the team in 3PT% this season with 50%) was 0-1 from deep.
Despite the 2nd half drop in 3s made, Auburn out scored Colgate 19-35, in a very dominate 2nd half. Bruce Pearl stated that the game plan was to just “wear the team down” and taking advantage of the fact they ran their guards high minutes (Braeden 36 mins, Richardson 32 mins). Auburn’s depth and rotation did just that, allowing the Tigers to pull away late in the game.
Auburn played a very well-balanced game, statistically and there being no glaring statistics that would lead to question and no player on the team, who played meaningful minutes, had a negative +/-.
Auburn will resume play December 4th facing off against Memphis in Phillips Arena in Atlanta.