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Auburn Basketball: Previewing Auburn’s last road game at Georgia

By Will Schuette

Dec 29, 2016; Auburn, AL, USA; Auburn Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl shouts to his players against the Georgia Bulldogs during the first half at Auburn Arena. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports
Dec 29, 2016; Auburn, AL, USA; Auburn Tigers head coach Bruce Pearl shouts to his players against the Georgia Bulldogs during the first half at Auburn Arena. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports /
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Here we take a look at Auburn basketball’s matchup against the Georgia Bulldogs as the Tigers are coming off the loss to Arkansas.

Coming off a tough home loss to Arkansas, the Auburn basketball team is looking to end the regular season on a good note with only two more chances to do so. The first will come Wednesday night in Athens against Georgia, who defeated the Tigers back in December at the start of SEC play.

The first meeting in Auburn was one of many games this season in which the Tigers gave up an array of points. The Dawgs got a win 96-84 over Auburn, as they put up 53 in the second half to pull away. Auburn played exceptionally well early, but Georgia’s top talents J.J. Frazier and Yante Maten had their way with the Tigers as the game progressed.

Auburn will be catching a break going into Wednesday night’s matchup, as Maten will miss the game due to a knee sprain he suffered against Kentucky just over a week ago. Georgia head coach Mark Fox has stated that Maten will miss the remainder of the regular season. Maten had 31 of Georgia’s 96 points against Auburn.

With Maten out, the Tigers number one focus in this game would appear to be stopping Frazier. The senior guard put up 27 points on the Tigers earlier this season. Last week, Frazier scored 28 points in a win over Alabama and 29 in a win over LSU before being named SEC Player of the Week. Auburn has struggled a majority of the season on defense, but the Dawgs will not have many scoring options if the Tigers can slow Frazier.

Mustapha Heron led the way for Auburn in December’s matchup with Georgia scoring 19 points and hitting four 3-pointers. It would be nice to see a similar performance this time, but the Tigers have had many other guys stepping up in the scoring column of late. Eight different players have scored in double figures in at least one of the last six games for the Tigers. Ronnie Johnson has given the Tigers a hefty boost off the bench, and Bryce Brown has played a few solid games after being a non-factor earlier in the season. Auburn has much more firepower on offense than Georgia does going into this game, and it is not even close. Despite the mismatch, Auburn’s defensive ineptitude and poor play throughout the year away from home puts Wednesday’s game in a position to go either way.

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The resumes for Auburn and Georgia are particularly similar going into the game. Neither team has much of a shot at an NCAA berth, but a win could certainly mean something as far as getting into the NIT field. Wednesday night’s matchup will surely reveal how important playing postseason basketball is to each team.

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