The Tigers put the nail in the coffin early in the game for a sure victory during Thanksgiving break.
The Auburn University Men's Basketball team moved to a 3-3 record with a win over High Point University 75-54 in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum Wednesday.
"I thought that the difference in the game was our defense," said head coach Jeff Lebo. "The stretch when we went on the run was obviously the difference in the game and we had the chance to play a bunch of different people tonight."
Auburn went on a 22-2 run for 6:59 of the first half after being down 13-12.
The Tigers continued to maul the Panthers as they went ahead 34-15 in the last five minutes of the half.
Auburn did not allow High Point to score any points in the last 10:51 before it went into halftime with a lead of 40-18.
Auburn's largest lead of the night was 27 points and it came in the second half with the help of the free throws made by sophomore guard, Frankie Sullivan, with 13:46 left in the game.
Five Tigers scored in double figures including senior forward, Lucas Hargrove, who led the team by earning his second career double-double with 17 points and a career-high 12 rebounds.
"Lucas (Hargrove) was outstanding for us tonight, rebounding the ball," Lebo said. "He did turn it over a little bit, but he put the ball on the floor, penetrated and made some good plays offensively, doing what he does best which is, I think, taking the ball to the bucket and then making decisions with it."
Senior forward, Brendon Knox, achieved a career-high game with 12 points and four rebounds.
"It (aggressiveness) is something that I've been working on for a while now," Knox said. "I've been trying to be more aggressive defensively. I've been working on that since this summer and working on my post moves, trying to be more effective around the rim."
Freshman guard, Earnest Ross, also scored 12 points with three rebounds.
"It was a very big game," Ross said. "We had to come together as a team. We know that it's a break right now and that everybody is gone, but we had to pull together as a team and know that we have to win games. In order for us to win games, we have to play as a team and that's exactly what we did tonight."
Auburn's lead did not drop below 17 points even when coach Lebo put the bench players in with 8:30 in the game.
Auburn out shot High Point 46.9 percent to 32.1 percent while Auburn went 4-of-17 (.235) from the 3-point line and 25-of-40 (.625) from the free throw line. The Tigers also dominated rebounding 43-31 over the Panthers, according to AuburnTigers.com.
The team comes back home from the holiday to hoop against Troy tomorrow at 7 p.m., in Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum
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