Auburn men’s basketball continues to dominant in non-conference play with a win tonight by a score of 67-41 against the Bulldogs.
The win tonight puts them at 7-1 overall and 5-0 at home this season.
Austin Wiley was a key player in Auburn’s win tonight by putting up 14 points and 5 blocks. He also had help from Samir Doughty scoring 13 points and Jared Harper with 5 assists.
The first half started out slow as neither team was able to score in the first 2 minutes. The Tigers started the game out scoring 5 points and having 3 turnovers in the first 4 minutes of the game.
The offense struggled tonight while they only converted 36 percent of 3 point shots and 46 percent in field goals. Despite Auburn struggling offensively tonight, the Tigers defense looked strong as they made the bulldogs commit 25 turnovers and 5 shot clock violations on the night.
“I thought our defense was good tonight and sometimes your defense has got to carry you. While we struggled a little bit offensively particularly how we took care of the ball, 19 assists and 19 turnovers are not good, but the defense maintained pretty consist,” head coach Bruce Pearl said.
Auburn went on a 15-3 run for 8 minutes during the first half and a 12-0 run for 5 minutes in the last 7 minutes of the first half to give them a 15 point lead going into the half.
The Tigers improved in the second half by shooting 62 percent in field goals and 55% in 3 pointers. A 17-2 run lead them to their largest lead of the night when they led by 32 in the last 3 minutes of the game.
UNC-Asheville fought to make a comeback with a 6-0 run in the last 3 minutes of the game but it wasn’t enough.
The Tigers will be back in action at the Auburn Arena against Dayton on the SEC Network at 7:30 p.m. CT.
