Auburn took care of business early and often against South Carolina as the Tigers pulled away with a 109-86 victory in Columbia on Saturday afternoon.
It was clear that the loss on Wednesday night after leading my 19 points to Arkansas was fresh in the minds of the Tigers.
“We learned from our mistakes at Arkansas,” Bruce Pearl said. “Came out in the second half and didn’t take our foot off the gas, particularly offensively – 109 is an Auburn record for a road SEC game.”
Here’s everything Pear had to say following the victory:
Opening statement…
“It was a good win on the road. We’re making progress, getting better. We learned from our mistakes against Arkansas, came out in the second half and didn’t take our foot off the gas, particularly offensively – 109 is an Auburn record for a road SEC game. I’m most pleased with 21 assists. When we’ve played South Carolina and we’ve gotten great point guard play, we’ve been successful. But when we haven’t, we haven’t (been successful). I think that’s the key. To have both Allen Flanigan and Sharife Cooper on the floor together right now, it gives me two playmaking guards that I can work through, it helps me as a play-caller. I thought the guys did a good job mixing in the fast break and transition with running some good half-court sets. We still struggled defensively. Lawson gets 23. Bryant gets 24. And we fouled them too much. Good win with short prep. Great balance. I thought JT and Jaylin Williams really responded. JT keeps getting better. Al does everything. Devan has been terrific off the bench. Our 5s did a good job scoring at the rim. So overall, a pretty good afternoon.”
On making the extra pass against South Carolina…
“South Carolina will really extend defensively, and they don’t let you run your normal offense. You cannot pass the ball much against them because of the way they extend, the pressure they put on you. So you just keep the ball in your ball handlers’ hands and then allow them to make plays. Both Sharife and Al are guys you need to be able to guard all the way to the rim, and you’ve got to come off because they can beat their 1-on-1 matchup. When you come off, you’ve got things at the rim and you’ve got perimeter guys who can shoot it. The team was sort of built around that aspect – guys who can shoot the ball, finish at the rim, and a couple play-making guards to get them the ball.”
On making 14 3s, winning battle on the boards…
“Sharife was upset because he only had one assist in the second half, claiming that some of those guys missed some shots that they should’ve made. It’s important in a spread offense to be able to stretch the defense. Jaylin Williams and JT Thor played a lot together in this game because South Carolina went smaller. I thought Ira Bowman did a good job tonight recognizing that they were small, and we went small also. I thought that helped us offensively because we were able to put five guys on the perimeter that could shoot it. The fact that JT made one, you’ve got to guard him. Jaylin made two, you’ve got to guard him. It just makes any offense you run that much better.”
On Sharife Cooper and Allen Flanigan…
“The thing about Sharife is – to be a great undersized player, you’ve got to be the toughest guy on the floor. Sharife is going to get bounced every game, all game. It doesn’t bother him. It just doesn’t. He’s a tough kid. And that is required amongst undersized players. The opponent knows that. They do. That’s what they should fear. Allen is just such a productive player. I have a high expectation for Al. Al will probably tell you after every game I want more from him than anybody else. He’ll lead us in rebounding or lead us in field-goal percentage, get to the foul line and make them all, and Al finds something wrong with his game. I think he’s a great player, but he whether he loses focus or stays sharp all the time, I have very high expectations for him. He played great tonight.”
On finishing the first half strong…
“Steven Pearl got them in with about three minutes to go in the first half and really challenged them in that timeout to close. I thought Ira Bowman and Mike Burgomaster did a phenomenal job on the scout. We were extremely prepared. We had a great game plan both offensively and defensively. I think my assistant coaches really helped us win this game.”