The Auburn Tigers basketball team started the 2013-14 season with a dominating performance against Nicholls State.
The small but vocal crowd, including Auburn superstars Jason Dufner, Marquis Daniels and Lee Ziemba, was pleased with several big plays, including alley-oops and several intense blocks.
Newcomer KT Harrell led the Tigers in scoring with 21 points in his first regular season game with the Tigers. Harrell sat last season out after transferring to Auburn from Virginia.
While Harrell set the scoring tone, he says his priorities aren't on individual scoring.
"I don't come into the game thinking, 'Let me get this amount of points.'" said Harrell. "In the flow of the game I try to be aggressive and find my shot, and I try to get my teammates open for shots."
Senior guard Chris Denson was also in double-figures for the Tigers, putting up 20 points.
Auburn Head Coach Tony Barbee was pleased with his two leading scorers.
"I liked what I saw out of KT because when you have two guys like him and Chris Denson, it's hard to focus on one because the other will get you."
Auburn won the tipoff and Harrell quickly drained a three, giving the Tigers a lead they would never let go of.
Auburn used a high-pressure defense to force the Colonels into mistakes, including a 10-second violation and forcing 14 turnovers.
The Tigers defense totaled seven blocks and five steals, with senior center Asauhn Dixon-Tatum leading the way with four blocks.
Coach Barbee was happy with the defensive effort that the Tigers put forward tonight.
"There is room for improvement, but our press was effective at times. We got a little fatigued and they scored some baskets off of it." said Barbee. "There's not much to complain about when you hold a team to 33%, but there's room for improvement."
Nicholls State, who finished with an overall record of 9-21 last season in the Southland Conference, had a hard time hitting shots against the high-pressure defense that the Tigers played. The Colonels finished the game hitting only 19 of 56 field goals (33.9%), while only making six of their 24 attempted three-pointers (25%).
The Tigers made 22 of their 46 field goal attempts (47.8%), while hitting only four of their fifteen three-pointers (26.7%).
Freshman point guard Tahj Shamsid-Deen was the first Auburn freshman point guard to start a season opener since Quantez Robertson in the 2005-06 season. Shamsid-Deen scored five points with four assists and a steal.
Shamsid-Deen's counterpart, junior Malcolm Canada, scored seven points with one assist and two steals.
Along with Harrell, Canada and Deen, Coach Barbee played fellow newcomers Dion Wade and Benas Griciunas in the opener.
One aspect that Barbee was unhappy about was the Tigers free throw shooting, after the Tigers hit 28 of their 41 free throws.
"It's not where it should have been." Barbee said. "When we're in practice we're a 90% free throw shooting team, so from where my expectations are we should be a 75-80% free throw shooting team."
The Tigers' second test comes against Northwestern St. on Friday, November 15, in Auburn Arena at 7 p.m.
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