South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris reacts to his team's historic loss to Auburn basketball in Neville Arena
The Auburn basketball team was coming off a tough loss heading into their midweek home game. The Tigers were demolished by the Florida Gators in Gainesville over the weekend, and were facing the #11 team in the nation as a follow up.
However, it couldn't have gone better for Auburn basketball. Jaylin Williams and Johni Broome led the charge, with Williams racking up 23 points to lead all scorers and Broome right behind with 21 points. The big man lit it up from behind the arc, making four of five threes and Auburn's bench outscored South Carolina's 39-1.
It was the biggest margin of victory over a ranked program in history, and a massive knock to the Gamecocks, who are now tied with Auburn at the top of the conference. According to Auburn Undercover, South Carolina head coach Lamont Paris believed that things began to snowball for his team until they simply couldn't recover, but had only words of praise for Bruce Pearl's squad:
“They played some inspired, determined, intentional basketball,” Paris said postgame. “In their energy, in their demeanor, in their defensive effort.”
With another big win under their belts, the Tigers will be turning their attention to #22 Kentucky, who will arrive on the Plains this weekend. ESPN's College GameDay will be in attendance, and Pearl said he is looking forward to a big weekend for the Auburn family:
“There's no better opportunity than having Kentucky, national television, College GameDay,” Pearl said. “I'm so happy for Auburn. Like, it's going to be a gorgeous weekend. We have students sleeping out already, right now, for the game. The weather's good. There's going to be some fun activities out there for our students. So it's going to be a great, great weekend, and I want our kids to enjoy it. At the same time, we work all year long for these opportunities.”
Auburn and Kentucky will tip off at 5:00 p.m. central time from Neville Arena this Saturday.