Bruce Pearl’s players got all they could handle in the first game of the Veterans Classic on Friday night as they beat Davidson, 76-66.
“People in the world of college basketball know that you don’t schedule Bob McKillop and Davidson because he’s too good of a coach, and they’re too good of a program,” Pearl said last week. “We built this program on the belief that we want our players to play against the best.”
Auburn led from tip to final buzzer but Davidson didn’t go down without a fight. The Tigers shot 25% from 3-point range and committed 15 turnovers as Davidson’s mix of zone and man defense confused the young Auburn core.
Coincidentally, it was the defense from the Tigers as well that secured them the victory. Last season, Davidson was one of the top 3-point shooting teams in the country thanks to guards Jon Axel Gudmundsson and Kellan Grady, who last season combined for 35 points a game on average. Against Auburn, that 35 dwindled to 13 as the Tigers forced the ball out of the sharpshooting duo’s hands.
Gudmundsson, the reigning Atlantic-10 conference player of the year, struggled to get into a rhythm all game. At one point, he drove to the basket with Samir Doughty draped on his hip and tried to lay the ball in for a quick two points. As soon as he put the ball in the air, Auburn center Austin Wiley leaped into the air and pinned the ball to the backboard, filling up the arena with a thunderous thud.
Much like Gudmundsson, Davidson players couldn’t get anything going in the paint. Anfernee McLemore contributed three of Auburn’s five blocks on the night. McLemore patrolled the paint all game, which turned into easy opportunities on the other end. Along with Pearl’s patented press, Davidson couldn’t manage to get much of an offense going as it turned the ball over 16 times.
Auburn’s strength on defense won it the game, but it was the physical nature of its play that kept the Wildcats hanging around. In both halves, the Tigers jumped out to a hot start by bullying the smaller team and creating easy points. However, the fouls racked up quickly, which allowed Davidson to not only slow down the game but get free points as well.
Once the game started to slow down, the Wildcats began to barrage Auburn with 3s and cut into the lead. The Tigers had to rely on freshman Isaac Okoro and senior Danjel Purifoy to provide the team with points in the half-court offense.
Okoro, who was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field in the first half with 11 points, scored in every way versus the Davidson defense on his way to an Auburn team-high of 17 points.
Okoro hit two out of his attempted three triples and even converted one off a step-back. By forcing the defense to respect his range, opposing players had to step up on him, making it easier for him to blow past them.
Purifoy also contributed from deep, but that’s in his routine. The 36% career 3-point shooter repeatedly found himself spotting up on the arc wide-open during his 14-point performance. He took 10 shots in the game, with eight of them coming from three. As the Tigers look to replace the 30-point production they lost from last season, Purifoy seems eager to fill it.
“I thought our kids played really hard,” Pearl said. “I thought we had an excellent defensive game plan. It was an honor to coach against Bob (McKillop). His stuff is hard to guard, and I thought our kids did a really good job locking in on their personnel. It was a really balanced effort. We got enough from the 3, got to the foul line enough, and we did a pretty good job on the boards. It was just real solid for a young team playing against a very experienced Davidson team.”
After two tightly contested battles to start the season, Auburn remains undefeated. Up next, the Tigers face South Alabama on Tuesday in Mobile.
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Bryce Johnson is a junior Journalism major at Auburn University from Santa Monica, CA. He works as a sports writer for The Plainsman.
- @Brycejohnson310
- bzj0020@auburn.edu
