AUBURN, Alabama–After defeating Oklahoma and “holding serve” in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, it’s rivalry week for the Auburn Basketball Tigers starting with a home game on Tuesday against Alabama, an opponent of Bruce Pearl’s team defeated 81-77 on January 11 in Tuscaloosa. After this game, the Tigers will close out the week with a rematch against the Georgia Bulldogs in Athens.
The Tide will arrive at Auburn Arena for a whistleblower at 8 p.m. CST (ESPN TV coverage) after beating No. 4-ranked Baylor 87-78 in Tuscaloosa.
Earlier Saturday, the Tigers won 86-68 at Auburn Arena against the Oklahoma Sooners, a game that Pearl said was a good win, but also a game his team should have won at home where Auburn has now won 40 games. consecutive out of conference. .
One of the keys to the win was Oklahoma’s 41-29 rebound, which led to a 14-point advantage for Auburn in points in the paint. First-year student Jabari Smith led the Tigers on the boards with 10 rebounds to go with his game-high 23 points.
Asked about the importance of board scrutiny, Smith said: “I just feel like it’s important. We have two guys on the scout team to face every day who are pretty tough to take down. They prepare us pretty well–Stretch (Babatunde Akingbola) and C-Mo (Chris Moore). Rebound is just a big plus. You don’t win if you don’t bounce back. It was a big point of attention. »
Walker Kesler helped the Tigers top the boards with nine rebounds to go with his college-high 21 points. Six of his points came from hitting a pair of three-pointers when the Sooners backed up defensively and challenged him to shoot.
Oklahoma coach Porter Moser noted that it’s tough to deal with the seven-foot-one Kessler, especially if he makes three points.
“You roll the dice with him,” Moser said. “He (2-4 on three points) was effective with him and we were trying to hook him up a bit with some of their athletes, clog the paint. They put him in that corner and we thought that instead of stretching (the defense) – we thought we were going to play (inside). You have to give him a hat tip – he knocked it down. With the athletes (from Auburn), we had to do something to try to plug in a bit with our five (centers).
Moser said he liked his team’s effort and the way the Sooners tried to handle what he said was probably the toughest road environment they’ve faced, but added that too many His team’s 14 turnovers, which led to 16 Auburn points, were the result. bad decisions by his players. He also noted that the Tigers are difficult to defend as they have several players capable of hitting ‘hard shots’.
With the win, Auburn moved to 20-1 with its 17th straight win, the longest streak in the nation, which ties the 1998-99 Tigers for the second-longest in program history.
Auburn is 8-0 in the SEC heading into the Alabama game while the Tide, which is 14-7 overall, is 4-4 in the league tied for sixth with LSU , South Carolina and Texas A&M. Kentucky is in second place at 6-2 in SEC play with Arkansas and Tennessee at 5-3 followed by Mississippi State at 4-3.
Alabama ended Baylor’s 36-game winning streak against non-conference opponents. The Tide shot a season-high 59.2% from the field and really sizzled in the second half at 68.2%. Jahvon Quinerly scored 20 points for Alabama and another guard Jaden Shackelford added 19 points. Alabama hit a season-high 59.2 percent from the floor, including 68.2 percent (15 of 22) from the field in the second half alone
Georgia, which did not participate in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, lost 85-77 Saturday in Nashville as Vanderbilt hit a dozen three-pointers. The Bulldogs, to whom Auburn will close the week Saturday at noon CST at Stegeman Coliseum, are bottom of the league standings at 1-7 with the lone win last week at home against Alabama.
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