Auburn Basketball Continues to Improve Despite Injuries in Big Win Over Georgia
By Jacob Varner
Auburn basketball had four different players with 12-plus points, and the Tigers surpassed their SEC win total from last year with their fifth win in conference this year. Auburn (11-16, 5-10) knocked off Georgia (14-12, 7-8) in front of a small, but supportive crowd by a score of 84-81.
The biggest stat that immediately stood out to me was the fact that the Tigers led for 38:13 and never trailed in this game. Auburn started off well and just kept building on their lead throughout the first half. Auburn went into the break with a 39-23 lead, which was the largest SEC halftime lead for Auburn since leading LSU 36-19 on February 27, 2010.
Georgia made an incredible push towards the end and kept fans on the edge of their seats, but the Tigers were still able to hold them off with just good enough free throw shooting.
Even more impressing, Auburn did all of this without Tyler Harris, and Cinmeon Bowers only finished with 8 points and 5 rebounds in 17 minutes. Without big contributions from Bowers, Auburn was led by career nights from Jordon Granger, TJ Lang, and Horace Spencer.
Granger recorded his first career double-double (which is shocking to me) with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Lang led the Tigers in scoring with 21 points on 5-of-7 shooting and 8-of-10 at the free throw line. Spencer had another great start and finished with 9 points (a career-high), 8 rebounds, and 4 blocks.
I thought that T.J. Dunans would have to have a big game for Auburn to get the job done against Georgia. I also assumed that Cinmeon Bowers would have to play well. Granger and Lang picked a great night to make me wrong.
Dunans didn’t play a bad game, but his all around game isn’t quite back. He did make a big impact with a career-high 7 assists and a very key 5-of-6 from the free throw line late in the game. Dunans makes this team better and that will show more and more in the last few games. Tonight he didn’t lead the Tigers in scoring, but he was able to setup Lang and Granger so that they could get the job done.
As a team, Auburn shot 29-of-39 from the free throw line, and their 74.4 percent at the line is a big reason why they were able to hold on for the win.
JJ Frazier and Kenny Gaines did exactly what they had to do to mount a comeback by hitting three after three in the final minute and half, but Auburn hit just enough free throws to seal the deal.
I was admittedly nervous once Georgia started making threes to narrow the gap. However, I had faith that Auburn would be able to get it done at the line. The Tigers still aren’t a good free throw shooting team, but I don’t think they’re bad enough at the line to lose games for themselves.
For Georgia, JJ Frazier and Kenny Gaines did not disappoint. They gave the Tigers a scare towards the end, but also finished with a combined 52 points. Gaines finished 6-of-12 from three and Frazier went 12-of-16 at the free throw line.
The issue for Georgia was Yante Maten not being able to get anything going down low. The big man finished with just 10 points and 8 rebounds, and Bowers and Spencer were able to do a good job of keeping him and the other bigs in check. Auburn dominated the boards in the first half that allowed them to build their lead. The Bulldogs eventually out-rebounded the Tigers, but Auburn made sure to assert themselves down low early.
Auburn has now won two of their last three games and will take the improved play into Tuscaloosa this Saturday. Alabama is still the better team at this point and gets the big advantage of the home crowd as they look for revenge. However, Auburn is playing much better at the right time and I don’t expect this team to give up a game without a hard fight the rest of the season.
The Tigers are a banged up team that has faced almost everything this season, but they’re looking more and more like a team with each game they play. Bruce Pearl has taken all of the set backs and turned this team into one that was capable of winning more conference games than last year. This season hasn’t been the best by far, but with wins over Kentucky, Alabama, and now Georgia, the Tigers have something to hang their hat on. If Auburn is somehow able to get the season sweep over Alabama I might go as far as to call this season a success.
Another good win for Auburn basketball and it’s always good to do it against a rival.
War Eagle!