The Auburn Tigers just demonstrated how to not just beat a top 25 opponent, but mentally and physically pulverize them in every faucet of the game.
No. 13 Auburn (20-5, 9-3 SEC) destroyed No. 11 South Carolina (21-4, 9-3 SEC) 101-61 inside Neville Arena on Wednesday night. The Tigers were favored by 11.5 points by Vegas, and ended up winning by 40. That 40-point margin of victory is Auburn’s largest against a top 25 opponent in program history.
Beatdown, thrashing, demolishing, whatever you want to call it, that was an impressive showing from Auburn, who is now in second place in the SEC standings.
Here are takeaways from the victory.
One of Auburn’s best shooting performances… ever?
Sports Reference only has statistics dating back to the 2010-11 season, and the numbers from tonight stick out like a sore thumb in their archive. Prior to tonight, Auburn had three games where they shot over 60% from the floor; 2013 vs Ark-Pine Bluff (65.4%), 2017 vs Winthrop (61.8%), and in 2016 at Arkansas (61.1%). The Tigers shot 61.0% tonight in their win over South Carolina. Oh, and 60% from three. Can’t forget that.
Coupled with their points per possession of 1.485, and this game could easily be argued as one of the Tigers’ most efficient and dominant offensive outputs ever. “Tonight, after a slow start, we just made shots and played with great freedom. And we disrupted them offensively,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said following the game.
Auburn’s defense proved to be the stronger of the two
In my preview of this matchup, I pointed out that South Carolina’s defense has been really good all season long – ranked highly in the SEC in almost all major defensive statistical categories.
However, Auburn ranks No. 1 in almost all of those categories, too.
The Gamecocks shot 35% from the floor against the Tigers, finding almost no rhythm outside of the free throw line. They turned it over 13 times – not an insane total – and yet Auburn converted them in a whopping 25 points. That’s excellent, “defense into offense” basketball that Bruce Pearl’s squad has been playing all season long. Pearl credited his son Steven Pearl for a great scout, helping Auburn cause havoc for South Carolina on offense.
“I thought Steven Pearl did an amazing job on the scout,” Pearl said. “He had us really ready to go. They don’t turn the ball over, but we blitzed them in ball screens and did some things that bothered them, and we weren’t afraid to switch.”
Bench vs Benchless
Auburn’s bench scored 39 total points. Put simply, that’s a lot, but nothing out of the ordinary for the Tigers, who are No. 5 nationally in bench minutes at 44.0%. The Division I average is 31.2%.
South Carolina is No. 99 nationally in bench minutes at 34.9%. They usually get solid production.
The Gamecocks got one point from their bench. One. It took 39 minutes and 15 seconds for USC to earn this point, coming from Stephen Clark at the free throw line.
For a team like South Carolina – who has risen inside the top 15, is 21-4, and had won seven-straight games heading into this contest – that is almost unheard of.
Auburn shut them down.
Final notes
- * Johni Broome and Jaylin Williams combined to shoot 9-of-12 from three.
- * Chad Baker-Mazara is shooting 44% from deep in SEC play. He finished 2-2 from three tonight.
- * Auburn’s point guards had no turnovers.
- * South Carolina had just five assists, as opposed to Auburn’s 22.
- * Jalen Harper, the brother of former Auburn star Jared Harper, scored the final bucket of the game.
- * KD Johnson finished the game with a plus/minus of +40 (!!!) in just 19 minutes.