Auburn Prevails Against Saint Louis

Auburn (7-0) defeated Saint Louis (5-2) 65-60 Sunday afternoon in Neville Arena. The Tigers were fresh off of their Thanksgiving trip to Cancun, but they knew in order to take down Saint Louis, it would take their best effort. "That was a great win," said Pearl. "We beat a quad one team." Auburn jumped out to an early lead, but the Billikens quickly clawed back. They were led by big days from Javon Pickett and Gibson Jimerson. Jimerson hit four threes in the game for Saint Louis, and Pickett proved difficult to defend. He led the team in scoring with 16 points. From then on out, it was a back and forth game. There were eight lead changes in the game and eleven ties. Auburn's offense hit a slump late in the second half, and Saint Louis garnered their biggest lead of the game (58-53) with five minutes left. At that point Pearl took a timeout, which is something he rarely does. He did so in order to give his team a rest. "I never do that," said Pearl. "I just knew that I wasn't going to sub that group out." There was no panic from this Auburn squad, however. KD Johnson checked into the game and was an immediate spark. He drove to the basket and made a tough layup to cut the lead to three. Auburn then went on a 12-2 run to finish out the game. "We've been in that spot multiple times before," said Broome. Wendell Green Jr. led the team in scoring today with a season high 22 points, despite struggling in the last few games. Green said "I worked on it mentally," when asked about how he handled his shooting woes. However, Green was not alone in the scoring effort. Johni Broome had 11 points. Johnson and Williams also added 9 points apiece. Overall, Auburn shot 40.7% from the field in this one. That percentage is improved from their previous game, but the Tigers know they still need to get better offensively. Pearl specifically pointed out that "when (Johni Broome) gets to finishing more, we'll be better." Nonetheless, Coach Pearl is proud of his team's win today. It was gutsy performance against a really solid opponent. "There's a lot of reasons why we could've lost that game," said Pearl. They did not; however, and now they can turn their attention to their next game. The Tigers will take on Colgate Friday night inside Neville Arena. That game will tip off at 7:00.