The Auburn basketball team bounced back from a loss in their last appearance by taking down Jacksonville State 78-54 Tuesday, Nov. 19 at Auburn Arena.
After the Tigers fell to Northwestern State 111-92 their last time out, head coach Tony Barbee said improving defensively was their sole focus leading up to the Jacksonville State game.
On Tuesday night, Auburn held the Gamecocks to a season-low 54 points and less than 35% shooting from the floor. Barbee was pleased.
"We paid a little more attention to detail on the defensive end of the floor," Barbee said. "It's all we did for the last two days, and it showed."
The Auburn defense got out to a fast start and forced several early turnovers on their way to an 11-2 lead. The Gamecocks would go on a run of their own to cut the deficit to 13-8, but with 8:21 remaining in the first half, senior guard Chris Denson's bucket extended the Tigers lead to 19-8.
Denson scored 11 of his team-high 15 points in the first half. He also chipped in six rebounds, two assists, and three steals.
At halftime, the Tigers led the Gamecocks 33-19. After the break, Auburn didn't let up.
Just over two minutes into the second half, junior guard K.T. Harrell's 3-pointer forced the Gamecocks into calling a timeout down 40-25.
Barbee said the play of Harrell and Denson can be hard for opponents to defend.
"Those two are a dangerous combination because they can score in so many different ways," Barbee said. "They can both shoot it, they can both drive it, and they can both create for their teammates. So it's not just a one man show."
Minutes later, Harrell completed a 3-point play the old fashioned way, which was followed by back-to-back 3-pointers from freshman guard Dion Wade. This scoring spurt extended the Tigers' lead to 56-30 with 11:22 remaining in the game, and all but ended any hopes of a Gamecock comeback.
Auburn would go on to win 78-54 and moved to 2-1 on the year.
Following the game, Barbee explained playing good, sound defense had benefits in addition to simply holding the opponent to a lower score.
"The outcome of us playing good defense is we're able to get out in transition and do some things out in the open court where we're really pretty good," Barbee said. "We show flashes of the type of team we can be when we're locked in on the defensive end of the floor."
Auburn hosts Murray State in their next game Saturday, Nov. 23 in Auburn Arena.
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