Observations: Auburn 101, South Carolina 61

The Tigers played a nearly perfect game of basketball at a nearly perfect time in the season. Oh, and it came against the SEC's co-leaders.

PF Jaylin Williams (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

Auburn was already down by five, and South Carolina hadn’t missed a single shot attempt, when Tre Donaldson dribbled the ball up the floor.

The Auburn point guard ran a high ball screen with center Johni Broome at the top of the key, a staple of the Tigers’ offense all season long. South Carolina countered with some “drop” coverage — where the defender responsible for the screener drops back toward the basket, looking to take the drive or the potential roll to the basket away first and foremost.

Instead of rolling to the basket, though, Broome stayed outside. He spun off of Donaldson’s defender on a pick-and-pop play. Seeing Broome wide-open behind him, Donaldson dished the ball back to his center and watched him fire away from deep.

The 3-pointer missed, but shooting guard Denver Jones was in perfect position to corral a long offensive rebound. When the ball reset to Donaldson and Auburn went with another high ball screen, South Carolina sold out to stop Broome rolling. Donaldson tried a pull-up jumper that didn’t fall, but small forward Chris Moore tapped the ball back out to him on another long rebound.

Back at the top of the key, Auburn went with a similar, yet tweaked, play call: Power forward Jaylin Williams would set the high ball screen for Donaldson this time as Broome posted up down low.

Another drop from a South Carolina big, another chase around the screen by Donaldson’s defender, another opportunity to kick out for a straight-on 3-pointer. Williams caught the pass, made a smaller switched-on defender hesitate with a jab step, and swished the triple.

On the very next possession, Donaldson vultured a steal away from a patient South Carolina offense and threw down an impressive dunk on the other end. Just like that, the game was tied.

These plays would be signs of things to come for both Auburn and South Carolina. Not only was Auburn undefeated this season in games in which Williams had hit a 3-pointer, but his triple and Donaldson’s big play later doubled into a 10-0 run — a “Kill Shot,” in EvanMiya terminology — for the Tigers.

Auburn’s lead quickly grew to 20 in the first half. It reached 30 with 7:34 left in the second half, then it ballooned to more than 40 with a 14-0 run that started with the key players and ended with the scout team.

As the final buzzer sounded, it was official: The 101-61 Valentine’s Day beatdown of South Carolina was the single-largest win over a ranked team in Auburn history. The Tigers shot 61% from the field, 60% from deep and nearly 90% from the free-throw line — as a team — against a defense that had only allowed 64 points per game.

“Tonight, after a slow start, we just made shots and played with great freedom,” head coach Bruce Pearl said afterwards. “I think the other thing, too, that was important was we disrupted them offensively. We turned them over, we were aggressive, and made play on offense out of our defense.”

Pretty much everywhere you looked, Auburn dominated a South Carolina team that had beaten Tennessee on the road, thumped Kentucky earlier this season and had won six straight games to surprisingly climb to the top of the SEC standings.

The Tigers were +27 in points off of 3-pointers, +17 in points off of turnovers and +38 in bench points. Auburn had more than triple the amount of assists (22) as it had turnovers (7). South Carolina almost the reverse of that — five assists and 13 turnovers. Auburn scored 50 points in both halves. South Carolina didn’t get to 50 points until the 8:48 mark of the second half.

“I’m not going to lie: I expected them… to break within the 12- or 14-(point) range and keep it closer,” Williams said of Auburn’s double-half dominance. “But, you know, we stuck together. We had the same game plan we had in the first half. We just had to get back to it.”

Here are four Observations from Auburn’s historic, 40-point rout of South Carolina, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Night.

C Johni Broome (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

Meet the super-sized Splash Bros

Basketball is a game of matchups. Some teams are better built to handle others, and there are times when a squad is going to have to overcompensate for something in its makeup that doesn’t line up as well with its opponent.

Pearl though that Florida “didn’t match up very well” for Auburn, and that proved to be the case in a not-close-at-all loss in Gainesville a few days earlier. But the way Auburn guards and the things it does offensively, Pearl noted, “worked really well against South Carolina.”

As a team, South Carolina is tough, physical, experienced and rebounds quite well. It’s even got a strong 2-point defense. However, it’s not very big up front, with its tallest starter measuring at 6-foot-8 — B.J. Mack, who plays more of a guard role than anything.

Because of that, South Carolina had to make a concerted effort to pack the paint defensively. It ran drop coverage on ball screens and even switched into some zone at times, determined to not let Broome and Williams run wild around the rim like they’ve had throughout the season.

The problem is, of course, Broome and Williams aren’t just inside weapons. They can be, as teammate K.D. Johnson dubbed them Wednesday night, “The Splash Bros.”

And Broome and Williams did their best impressions of the legendary Golden State Warriors backcourt against South Carolina.