Coming into tonight’s matchup, Auburn had only one win in the past 11 meetings with the Commodores in the Music City. Despite a low scoring, very sloppy first half, the visiting Tigers found a new gear in the second led by Sharife Cooper with 18 of Auburn’s 50 points. It was a very physical night at the Memorial Gymnasium in Nashville, but the Tigers held on 73-67 in a high scoring second half.
The first half was hard to watch for anyone who has any interest in the game. Both sides could not find the bottom of the basket taking 59 shots and only making 16 of them good for 27%. Auburn could not find the three ball early going 0-7 to start the game before Jamal Johnson drained his first baskets of the night to give the Tigers their first lead of the night with 8:41 in the first.
“A good night from Jamal, we couldn’t have won without him” said Bruce Pearl after the game. It was the Auburn bench which saved the visiting Tigers scoring 17 of their first 20 baskets.
Vanderbilt went into half time with the lead 27-25 but had many struggles of their own that continued to plague them. The Commodores gave away most of their points at the line tonight, shooting only 50% despite recording better FG and 3PT percentages than Auburn. Dylan Disu had 18 and was the leading scorer for the home team with Scotty Pippen Jr. only having 12 and being fouled out late in the final half of the game. At the end of the day, it was a battle of turnovers. Auburn with 16 and Vanderbilt with 17 with comments from Coach Pearl exclaiming the “ridiculous amount of unforced turnovers and they’re killing us… It was a hard game to coach”.
The second half saw an entirely new Auburn ball club sinking their first four 3PT baskets to secure a lead they would hold the rest of the game. Cooper came alive scoring 18 of his 19 points in the final half and matched Johnson atop the leading scorers before the final buzzer. The Tigers went 6-9 from deep and recorded a shooting percentage over 50% in the second.
Auburn improves to 5-7 in the SEC standings good for 10th and 11-10 on the season. With just six games left, the Tigers travel to Kentucky this Saturday for a noon tip at Rupp Arena. After the weekend, the Tigers won't see another opponent with a record bellow .500 including their final two against ranked teams.
