At the under-eight media timeout in the second half, Kareem Canty was spent.
The junior guard stopped on his walk back to the bench, bent over and stood motionless near halfcourt with his hands on his knees until teammate Patrick Keim ushered him back to the bench.
Canty and Tyler Harris, who spent a combined 75 out of 80 minutes on the court, led a furious second-half comeback against No. 22 South Carolina, but the Tigers ran out of gas down the stretch and fell to the undefeated Gamecocks, 81-69.
“(Fatigue) could definitely be a factor,” Harris said. “Little things, offensively, where I feel like myself and Kareem definitely could have finished some plays to help us out. … Kareem, he play a lot of minutes. I do also. We try to don’t let the fatigue get to us.”
Harris, who played a season-high 37 minutes, made his first nine shots and led Auburn with 22 points on 10 of 13 shooting, but he was one of several Tigers that struggled to hold onto the ball in the first half.
Fifteen of the Tigers’ 21 turnovers came in the first 20 minutes, and the giveaways led to 23 of South Carolina’s 43 points in the first half.
“Very disappointing effort,” said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl. “You’re playing a team that’s undefeated. We’re playing at home, and it takes about 10 minutes before we really turned it up and started to compete. … I thought half of our 21 turnovers were just plays where we lost composure and just didn’t take care of it, didn’t value possessions.”
Harris and Cinmeon Bowers each turned the ball over six times, while Canty added five.
“We was just rushing a little too much, trying to make a play instead of getting into our offense,” Harris said. “It took us awhile to calm down.”
The turnovers put Auburn in a hole early, and the Tigers fell behind by a game-high 18 points with 3 minutes, 24 seconds left in the first half.
Harris keyed a 9-0 Auburn run over 2:14 in the second half to cut the South Carolina lead to five, which was the closest the game had been since the 14:22 mark of the first half.
Auburn couldn’t close the gap any more, and the Gamecocks held on thanks to five players in double figures, led by Sindarius Thornwell’s 22.
Late in the game, Auburn struggled to get the ball inside to Harris, who made nine of the Tigers’ 12 2-point baskets.
“We were begging, trying to play-call and trying to beg the guys to throw it (into the post),” Pearl said. “We didn’t do a very good job recognizing that mismatch and taking advantage of Tyler on the inside.”
The Tigers now have time to regroup before they return to action on Saturday at Missouri, which is 7-6 and begins conference play Wednesday night at Georgia.
Auburn failed to start conference play 2-0 for the third consecutive year, and Pearl had a simple explanation.
“We turned the ball over,” Pearl said. ”We didn’t execute, and as a result, we got beat.”
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