Auburn doesn't like to play teams from North Carolina in 2018.
The No. 7 ranked Tigers traveled to Raleigh, North Carolina, following their overtime win against UAB to take on North Carolina State, but failed to bring any of that winning momentum on the road with them.
Here are three takeaways on what went wrong and what went right for Auburn in Wednesday night’s 78-71 loss to NC State.
Turnovers
Both teams came into the game with highly-touted defensive units, with both ranked inside the top-15 in turnovers forced per game.
The defenses lived up to their respective reputations with both teams forcing a combined 47 turnovers – 25 from Auburn and 22 from NC State.
Though both teams saw an influx in turnovers forced, points off those turnovers was something neither team could fully capitalize on. Auburn took the most advantage of its opportunities, but scored only 27 points off the 22 turnovers, while NC State was only able to score 17 off 25.
3-point shooting
In a game mostly defined by the turnovers, an underlying factor was the continuation of Auburn’s cold streak from 3.
The Tigers launched 25 triples Wednesday night but only connected on five of them. In the last two games, Auburn is shooting 9-for-47 from deep for an abysmal 19 percent.
A big factor in Auburn’s inability to hit from deep is the recent struggles of Bryce Brown. Ever since Brown dropped a career high against Dayton, the all-time 3-point leader for Auburn is shooting 0-for-10 from behind the arc and 1-for-13 from the field in 62 minutes.
Bench play
Auburn’s bench unit kept the Tigers in the game despite the number of turnovers and shooting struggles.
The trio of Malik Dunbar, Austin Wiley and J’Von McCormick combined for 39 of Auburn’s 43 bench points and scored majority of Auburn’s total points Wednesday.
Dunbar, Wiley and McCormick connected on 76 percent of their shots and were also the only ones to post positive plus/minus ratings on the team.
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