The Auburn men's basketball team overcame an abundance of fouls, a record low in attendance and a fan ejection to dispatch the South Carolina Gamecocks 83-67.
Four Auburn (13-13, 5-10 SEC) starters reached double digits, including SEC leading scorer Chris Denson who led the Tigers with 22 points on 8-of-11 shooting.
"South Carolina is a good team, they makes runs, but I thought we did a better job of handling adversity with the so-called physical nature of the game," Auburn head coach Tony Barbee said. "We didn't let it turn into a Vandy-type run and the dip in our intensity didn't turn into something bigger."
53 total fouls stretched the game length to close to two and a half hours and five Auburn players recorded three or more fouls.
"You can't get caught up in things you can't control," Barbee said. "I thought we did a good job of maintaining through adversity, except for whatever happened with Tahj on the technical."
Auburn shot 52 percent from the field and received 18 points in contribution off the bench.
"We had a horrible shooting night against Vanderbilt and we let that dictate our defense and we can't do that against a good team," senior forward Allen Payne said.
The Gamecocks (10-18, 3-12 SEC) outrebounded Auburn by a margin of 36-25, including 13-5 on the offensive glass, but tight defense forced South Carolina into 20 turnovers on the night.
"They weren't really good shooters, so we just stood back besides Williams, who was their main man," Denson said. "We had a lot of slip ups letting him get off tonight, but we just brought it this game. We had energy tonight."
Senior guard Brenton Williams led all scorers with 26 points, but only one other Gamecock was allowed to reach double digit point totals.
In support of Denson, freshman point guard Tahj Shamsid-Deen had 14 points and was a perfect 3-of-3 from behind the arc while the senior Payne added 15 points and five steals.
KT Harrell, the team's second leading scorer, contributed 11 points to the victory.
The announced attendance of 4,434 made Wednesday night's game the lowest attended game in the four years since the Auburn Arena's opening.
In the middle of the second half, referee Teddy Valentine ejected Auburn season ticket holder Michael Hardin.
The Tigers return to action March 1 with a date in Coleman Coliseum against the Alabama Crimson Tide (11-17, 5-10 SEC). Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.
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