Observations: Auburn 66, South Carolina 63
Down 9 in the first and down their Player of the Year frontrunner in the second, the Tigers clawed out a gritty road win to remember.
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
COLUMBIA, S.C. — On one end of the floor, a senior missed two free throws with his team down by a single point.
On the other end of the floor, a freshman made two free throws with his team up by that single point.
“We usually go through stuff like this every single day in practice,” the freshman said. “So, it was just another moment for me to step up and do what we do every day.”
The senior wasn’t a strong free-throw shooter overall, now sitting at 66% on the season. He noted after the game that the crowd noise was loud in that situation.
“It was a tough environment, for sure,” the senior said. “Auburn brought a lot of fans.”
That’s right: The senior (Nick Pringle) missed both of his pressure free throws inside his home arena, while the freshman (Tahaad Pettiford) hit both of his to ice a win on the road — for the third time this season and the second time this week.
In the final minute of Auburn’s 66-63 escape at South Carolina on Saturday, you probably wouldn’t have been able to tell who was supposed to have the home-court advantage from the crowd noise alone.
“That's what Kentucky used to do,” Bruce Pearl said afterwards. “What we did in here today was what Kentucky used to do. That's what South Carolina's women do. You go to a game on the road in the SEC for South Carolina, and Coach (Dawn Staley) is taking her team everywhere in the league? That's what the Lady Vols did for years under Pat Summitt. That's what they did.
“We do have that going on right now. … I don't call them fans. They're witnesses. You go out on the road, they're not fans. They're witnesses.”
And those thousands of “witnesses” wearing orange and blue in the cavernous Colonial Life Arena on Saturday afternoon got to witness one of the grittiest victories in recent memory for Pearl’s program.
Auburn watched a 9-point lead at the 12:34 mark in the first half flip to a 9-point deficit by the 2:00 mark. The Tigers, gunning to be the nation’s No. 1-ranked team in a couple of days, were down by multiple possessions to the lowest-rated team in the SEC — one that had been blown out twice to open league play.
And, shortly after Auburn rallied to tie the game back up in the first five minutes of the second half, National Player of the Year frontrunner Johni Broome went down with what is believed to be an ankle sprain.
The extent of the injury will be unknown until Auburn gets back to the Plains, but it was more than enough to knock him out for the final 13:45 of action.
Broome returned to the bench in the final minutes, not putting any weight on his foot and being held up by reserve big man AD Scott. He pumped up the crowd during Pringle’s free throws and did a little coaching for his teammates on the floor late. He made it to the postgame prayer on the floor, needing Scott and fifth-year veteran Chris Moore to carry him back to the locker room.
“It just shows how much he cares about the team and not just himself,” Pettiford said. “It shows how close we are as a team, that we can come together through tough times like this.”
Auburn might have to continue to show that it can truly grind to get the results it wants without Broome. The Tigers will have a lot of lessons to learn from the first half in Columbia, where the Gamecocks spent most of time getting whatever they wanted on offense through their formidable frontcourt.
But, even without their best player down the stretch and feeling like every bounce was going against them on the road, the Tigers did what they had to do to pull out a win and, perhaps more importantly, avoid what would have been a résumé-damaging loss.
“This is what it's going to be every night in the league,” Pearl said. “That's just what it's going to be. And road wins are going to be hard to get. I think the key is going to be, you know, you can't be too affected by losing or too affected by winning.
“You've just gotta get to the next one.”
Here are four Observations from Auburn’s 66-63 win at South Carolina, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Day.
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
The defense stood tall after getting pushed around early
Pearl likened the opening minutes of the game to a tennis match — constant offense from both sides. Auburn hit its first five shots from the field and nine of its first 12. The Tigers looked like they were going to be able to hang a big number on the board against the Gamecocks, much like they did twice last season in blowout wins.
Auburn’s offense cooled off after that, only hitting five of its last 16 shots to close the first half. South Carolina’s offense, meanwhile, found another gear, even without its starting point guard.