Auburn earned its third straight SEC win to raise its conference record back over .500 for the first time since its win over Texas A&M.
The Tiger defense forced Florida to only 20 percent shooting from behind the arc and 17 turnovers that Auburn turned into 19 points in Auburn’s 76-62 win.
“To turn them over 17 times, it’s the most they’ve turned it over all year long,” said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. “To hold them to four 3-pointers; they average 10 — so the things that were ailing us on the road, were things that we were able to really get healthy with, and that was getting a little bit of a defensive swagger back.”
Auburn’s defense has been trending upward in the past three games after it allowed 80-plus points in three straight games to SEC competition.
Now, the Tigers have only allowed 58, 63 and 62 points during their current winning streak.
The capitalization on forced turnovers has been a driving force for Auburn with the team scoring 77 points off 58 turnovers in the past three games, while also winning the rebounding battle in each game.
Stepped up defensive pressure from the one through three spots has been a key through the recent stretch, especially tonight.
“I thought that Jared Harper and Samir Doughty and Bryce Brown all really stepped up defensively,” Pearl said.
Doughty led the charge for Auburn posting a plus-13 plus/minus rating by contributing heavily on both sides of the floor against Florida.
Doughty scored in double figures for the seventh time this season while also contributing five rebounds and tied for the team high with three steals on 50 percent shooting.
“Samir was terrific,” Pearl said. “I thought he was confident offensively. He still played with that philly swag, but he took on some defensive identity… he did a great job using his length, he was physical.”
Samir’s presence is usually felt on the defensive end of the floor, but once Harper and Okeke headed to the locker room early, he took over offensively, leading all Auburn scorers with 10 points in the first half.
“They was in zone,” Doughty said. “I knew that I seen gaps that I was able to attack, so I was just attacking gaps and trying to get to the basket or find shooters. I knew once we drive, the zone, it was going to break all up, so I was just trying to drive the zone.”
Doughty, a transfer from VCU, made it a key point this summer to improve his shooting ability, especially from beyond the arc.
“I just worked on different shooting drills throughout the summer,” Doughty said. “Well, since I left VCU I’ve just been trying to become a better shooter. I know Coach Bruce likes to shoot a lot of 3s and I didn’t want to be a liability and teams not play me on the 3-point line, so I just worked on my 3-point shooting and just tried to improve every day.”
The work has paid off this season with Doughty nailing 50 percent of his threes against Florida and 44.2 percent on the season. Doughty is also dangerously close to the exclusive 50-40-90 club (50 FG%, 40 3P%, and 90 FT%) with his season percentages at 47.6, 44.2 and 96.2.
Samir was not the only Tiger to have a positive impact on both sides of the floor with Okeke being the jack-of-all-trades for Auburn as usual accounting for 11 points, eight rebounds, three steals and a block.
Auburn will head back on the road Saturday, Feb. 9 to take on No. 21 LSU.
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