If there was one word to sum up the 2017-18 Auburn basketball season, it would be resilience.
The only thing that was different Saturday was the result, as South Carolina held on to defeat the Tigers 84-75.
Auburn trailed by as many as 26 points in the first half and was down by 21 at the break. The poor first half went from bad to worse when forward Anfernee McLemore suffered a gruesome ankle injury with 1:23 remaining in the half.
McLemore has officially been ruled out for the season and Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said he will undergo surgery on Sunday.
McLemore took to Twitter after the game to thank the Auburn Family and give an update on his condition.
“Thank you Auburn Family for all the love and support!” McLemore said. “Doctors said I dislocated my ankle, fractured my tibia, and will need surgery for some torn ligaments. Not to worry. I’ll be back in 4-6 months. War Eagle everybody.”
McLemore entered Saturday’s game averaging 7.7 points and an SEC-high 2.7 blocks per game. His loss means an already undersized Auburn team will need to turn to an even smaller lineup and leaves the Tigers with just eight healthy scholarship players.
“Our hearts and our prayers and our thoughts are with Anfernee,” Pearl said. “For us, it’s been next man up. Now, we’re down to eight scholarship guys. We will find a way.”
Auburn battled back to start the second half as the Tigers outscored South Carolina 34-18 in the first 13 minutes of the second half and cut the 21-point deficit to just five.
Auburn wouldn’t get any closer however, as the Gamecocks quickly responded with a 7-0 run to stretch the lead back to 12. A Jared Harper layup cut the deficit to six with 1:25 left, but Chris Silva put South Carolina back up eight with a three-point play at the other end.
“I was very proud of the way the kids absolutely battled back,” Pearl said on Auburn’s postgame radio broadcast. “They showed a lot of heart, a lot of character.”
Brown had 10 points, but he missed his first eight three-point attempts and finished just 3-16 from the field, including 2-13 from beyond the arc. Harper had 13 points on 2-8 shooting but had just one assist as well as a season-high nine turnovers.
Mustapha Heron led the Tigers with 16 points, but also struggled from the field, making just three of 12 shots. Auburn shot 32% as a team.
Despite the result, Pearl praised his team’s resilience.
“They’re resilient. The locker room was composed,” Pearl said. “We want to get back and get ready for the next one.”
The schedule won’t get any easier for Auburn, as the Tigers will return home to face Alabama Wednesday night.
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