After extending their win streak to 13 against Ole Miss, The Auburn Tigers (17-1, 6-0 SEC) came back home to take on the Georgia Bulldogs (5-13, 0-5 SEC) in Auburn Arena. The Tigers would go on to dominate the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry, 83-60 thanks to Walker Kessler with 15 points, a double-double from Wendell Green JR and a loyal and loud Auburn Crowd.
Despite Auburn winning the tip, it was Georgia’s Christan Wright that gave the Bulldogs the first points of the game, and Walker Kessler got the first points for the Tigers, and also delivered a block, but an altercation soon flared between Braelen Bridges and Jabari Smith that sparked a stoppage in play. Following the stoppage, Georgia’s Brelen Bridges was able to score a second chance layup, but not to be outdone Auburn’s Allen Flanigan put the Tigers back in the lead 5-4 with 16 minutes left to go in the first half.
Coming out of a timeout action seemed to slow until the 13 minute and 30 second minute mark when Walker Kessler hit a massive alley-oop that sparked a lot of energy into both the players and fans with Wendell Green JR. hitting two wonderfully executed layups to put the Tigers up 14-7 with 13 minutes left to go in the first half.
Jaylin Willams hit a second chance layup to continue a nine and zero witch although broken up by an Aaron cook layup, Jaylin Willams hit a three to extend the lead to 10 and spark another timeout. Coming out of the timeout Georgia ran a play that put the ball in Aaron cook for a turnaround jumper and was later expanded with a Christian Wright and-one. However, Zep jasper, and K.D Johnson hit two massive three to make the score 27-14 with eight minutes 32 seconds left.
Georgia’s Dalen Ridgnal came down on the next possession and unleashed a massive one-handed slam, and when he arose back up gave a little smirk it seemed to the Auburn student section that was out in droves and ready to post memes in Georgia’s twitter after the game. This did not stop Jabari Smith from coming right back down and giving the fans a jumper to restore their cheers, with the lead 29-16 with seven minuets and 49 seconds left to go in the first half.
Both teams were going blow for blow with each other starting with Georgia’s Aaron cook making a contested three and Auburn’s K.D Johnson doing the exact same thing on the next possession, Georgia gets a layup, Walker Kessler hits a big layup, and then Auburn started to hit haymaker’s another K.D Johnson three, a second chance layup by Jaylin Williams, another almost dunk by Wendel Green JR, and two bone shattering dunks by Dylan Cardwell. Making sure Auburn had the lead 50-25 with two minutes left till the second half.
The last two minuets started out slow for both sides, although Walker Kessler could have changed that with an open three that the Auburn faithful wanted him to shoot, and although not shooting Kessler did give the Fans his third block of the game. Although he did show why he did not shoot that shoot with a corner three airball, that would later turn into a buzzer beating tip ball from the cherry stripe, that was called back on a pixel-by-pixel video replay, meaning Georgia got the only points of the game with two free throws, meaning Auburn had the lead 50-27 going into the second half.
Georgia got the first points of the second half with a and one, but Jabari Smith was soon able to correct that miss step with a layup of his own, action was slowed down a tiny bit before Kessler got a two-handed slam that looked like an unlockable dunk in a basketball video game. Although Noah Bauman was able to score a three, Walker Kessler was able to expand on his pack of video game dunks with an alley-oop from Wendell Green JR, making the score 59-35 with 16 minutes left.
There seemed to be a slow down in the action up until the 14 minute 20 second mark when Georgia’s Braelen Bridges hitting a big time layup witch kickstarted a Georgia attempt to claw there way back out of the hole it had led Auburn dig for them, going on an eight and zero run until being broken up by a Conner three by Wendell Green Jr that forced a timeout from the Bulldogs with 11 minuets and 30 seconds with Auburn up 64-45.
Coming out of the timeout Auburn came out swinging with a Jabari Smith three almost the second the ball hit the hardwood. Georgia was not dead however with Noah Baumann hitting two huge threes to bring energy back to that bench, however this was short-lived with another Walker Kessler dunk. This aggression continued with a K.D Johnson layup, and Alley-oop by Devan Cambridge assisted by Wendell Green JR, forcing a timeout with the score 74-53 at six minutes and 45 seconds.
Around five minutes to go, Auburn started to run away with this as Jaylin Williams hit a fast break one handed dunk that seemed to help circle the crows around the Georgia bench, and although Auburn was able to add more plays to the highlight reel, including a couple of blocks from Dylan Cardwell dunks, and a Allen Flanigan Dunk, but both teams knew the winner and loser had been decided, and that winner would be the Auburn Tiger’s with the final score being 83-60.
Auburn led almost every stat including getting a whopping 41 rebounds and 10 blocks along with making 10 threes even though they did shoot 36 of them, Georgia on the other hand only had 31 rebounds and two blocks, along with only making five threes although they did only shoot 13 wining the percentage battle with 36 percent made.
Auburn will be looking to carry this momentum into there next game this weekend against one of the blue bloods of college basketball, the 12th ranked Kentucky Wildcats. (15-3) (5-1 SEC) Kentucky is coming off a 64-58 win versus the Texas A&M Aggies, and will be out for blood as if won, Kentucky would upset the number one seat in the conference. When asked about Kentucky, Coach Bruce Peral “It is one of the best teams (Coach Calipari) has had.” The game is sure to be an epic for sure and will tip-off at 12:00 this Saturday the 19th.
