Horace Spencer almost was not on the court for the last play of Auburn’s heart-stopping 75-74 win over UAB Friday night.
During a Blazer timeout with 10.2 seconds remaining, coach Bruce Pearl considered going with a smaller lineup for the Tigers’ final defensive possession.
After a bit of persuasion from Spencer, Pearl decided to leave the true freshman on the floor, and the call paid off.
UAB guard Hakeem Baxter took the inbounds pass, drove to the basket and dumped the ball off to Chris Cokley, who led all scorers with 25 on 12-19 shooting.
Cokley tossed up the potential game-winner, but Spencer was there to swat the ball away and preserve the victory in Auburn’s first game of 2015.
“You never know what can go down,” Spencer said. “You never know how things are going to happen. To tell you the truth, I didn’t expect it to end like that, but I already knew in my heart and my mind that we were going to get this win, no matter how we had to do it.”
With 36 seconds left, it looked like Spencer could be the goat instead of the hero.
After Kareem Canty missed a three with 41 seconds left, Spencer secured the rebound. Instead of calling timeout like he had been instructed to do by Pearl, Spencer attempted to go up for a shot.
The shot never went up. Spencer turned the ball over, and UAB’s Robert Brown took it the length of the floor for a go-ahead layup.
On the final Auburn possession, the ball was Canty’s to give up.
Canty, one of five players who made their Auburn debut against the Blazers, had scored the last four field goals for Auburn. He drove to the right, but UAB had the play defended well, so Canty dished the ball to the corner.
Waiting on it was TJ Lang, who played only 14 minutes in the game after picking up three early fouls.
Lang was wide open, and he drilled the biggest shot of his Auburn career to give the Tigers a 75-74 advantage that would hold thanks to Spencer’s block.
“T-Lang came down with the clutch shot,” Spencer said. “He did his part. I had to do my part.”
The win serves as not only a season-opening win, but perhaps a program-changing one.
UAB advanced to the round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament a year ago, and many consider the Blazers the best team in Alabama.
“We got tired of hearing about them, for real,” Canty said. “We came out angry, played angry.”
Pearl was impressed with UAB, but the second-year coach was also pleased with his team’s effort down the stretch.
“(UAB) came in here, and they expected to win,” Pearl said. “That served them well, but then somehow in the second half our kids obviously stepped up and made plays on both ends of the floor.”
The game was the 10th sellout in Auburn Arena history, and the crowd, which included SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, played a major role in the game.
“The first two exhibition games I was like man, I hope the fans didn’t give up on us,” Canty said. “I seen every seat was filled, so I told my teammates when we got together, let’s give them a show. Let’s make a movie.”
The Tigers did just that, drawing fans to their feet time and time again, and eventually sending them home happy.
“It was a great win over a really good opponent,” Pearl said. “Wins like that last all year long.”
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