Auburn holds off Georgia State in final game before facing USC this Sunday

The #Auburn Tigers won their final tune-up game before facing the #USC Trojans Sunday afternoon at the Galen Center.

The USC Trojans and Auburn Tigers face off in a massive showdown on Sunday afternoon at the Galen Center.

Bruce Pearl against Andy Enfield in a matchup of two NCAA Tournament teams. The Trojans beat Long Beach State to win their fourth straight game on Wednesday night, and Auburn defeated Georgia State, 72-64, to get back on track after falling to Memphis this past weekend.

Senior forward Jaylin Williams shined for Auburn, finishing with a game-high (and a season-high for him) 20 points with eight rebounds as three Tigers finished in double figures.

The Auburn defense — its calling card — showed up and held Georgia State to 37.9-percent shooting from the field and just 29.4 percent from downtown.

Auburn’s defense was not especially strong against Memphis, at least not when Memphis was able to get off a shot attempt. Auburn did force a lot of Memphis turnovers, but it allowed Memphis to hit 50 percent of its field goal attempts. Bruce Pearl surely hated that.

Auburn made real defensive improvements against Georgia State.

Auburn now heads west and faces USC and then Washington in a tough Pac-12 trip, but the Trojan game is the toughest one on the nonconference slate for both teams.

Surprisingly enough — and somewhat encouraging for USC — is that Auburn trailed GSU by three at the half, 31-28, before scoring 44 in the second half.

Auburn’s leading scorer, Wendell Green Jr., finished with 17 points on 3-9 from the field, but he went 11-15 from the free throw line as Georgia State had one player foul out and two others record four fouls.

The Auburn defense might give the Trojans fits on Sunday, but after Reese Dixon-Waters and Tre White scored career-highs with 20 points each, the Tigers could be in trouble.

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