Auburn basketball: Tigers’ young “big-3” gets it done vs. Texas Southern

The sophomore duo of Jaylin Williams and Allen Flanigan collaborated with freshman Justin Powell to produce 48 points in Auburn basketball’s victory over Texas Southern.

Auburn basketball’s early-season schedule is evening out after a rocky start, as the Tigers have improved their record to 4-2 with a win over the Tigers from Texas Southern on Tuesday night.

Coming into the game having never lost to Texas Southern now would have been a pretty bad time for the team to drop their first game in one of college basketball’s many “Tiger Bowls”.

With the ongoing Sharifee Cooper situation, the Gus Malzahn firing, and just the general malaise this year has caused due to the pandemic, a loss to Texas Southern of the SWAC would have been an unforgivable loss.

Luckily, the Tigers were able to improve to 4-0 against TSU and 24-0 against the Southwestern Athletic Conference with a dominant 80-63 victory at the Auburn Arena.

It couldn’t have happened without Bruce Pearl’s young “big-3” of Justin Powell, Jaylin Williams, and Allen Flanigan.

Powell, the reigning SEC Freshman of the Week, was up to his usual tricks, pouring in 15 points, six assists, and seven rebounds in a complete game from Auburn’s top Tiger in 2020. Williams added 15 points and six boards just one game after dishing out a career-high eight assists.

Allen Flanigan was the guy who perhaps wowed observers the most with his relentless attacks on the rim and timely 3-point shooting. Bruce Pearl was clearly impressed by the slump-less sophomore:

"“He’s playing big-boy basketball right now. He’s a big boy. He’s able to go downhill and just overpower you.”"

In fact, the Flanigan love certainly didn’t stop there, with Justin Ferguson of the Auburn Observer making quite the comparison for the second-year hooper:

If Flanigan can continue drawing Okoro comparisons, and Powell can continue inspiring his own comparisons to Klay Thompson, Auburn basketball will have a fulfilling season.

Postseason or not.