After a last-second win against South Alabama in Mobile on Tuesday, the Auburn Tigers returned home Friday night and dominated Cal State Northridge.
“Clearly shot it, shared it and we overwhelmed our opponent,” said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. “Which we hadn’t been able to do yet.”
Auburn won the game 116-70, marking the first time the Tigers crossed the 100-point mark this season. Auburn is now 4-0 to start off its 2019-20 season.
Of those 116 points for the Tigers, Samir Doughty had 33 of them, a new career-best. His previous career-high was 20 points, which he scored against Murray State last season and Georgia Southern this season.
He finished the night 10-for-15 shooting, 6-for-8 from behind the arc with three assists and eight rebounds.
“I know I wasn’t as as aggressive as I can be our last game,” Doughty said. “I just tried to be more aggressive and make moves, whether that’s shooting the ball or finding my teammates. But I just wanted to be in attack mode tonight.”
In the first half, the Tigers scored 66 points, the most points they've dropped in a half since 2015 when they scored 72 in the second half against Northwestern State.
“Getting off to a good start was big on our plan today,” Doughty said.
Auburn shot 61% from the floor in that first half. The half was highlighted by 22 points from Doughty, nine assists by J’Von McCormick, eight points from both Isaac Okoro and Jamal Johnson and an 11-0 scoring run to start off the game.
McCormick finished the night with 16 assists, a new career-high. His previous number was five, which he had earlier this season against Davidson. He set a new Auburn all-time single-game assist record, breaking Eddie Johnson's mark of 15 set in 1976.
“Just got downhill, found an open man and my teammates were able to make shots,” McCormick said.
Six Tigers scored in the double digits. Danjel Purifoy had 16 points while Okoro had 17. Austin Wiley, Devan Cambridge and Anfernee McLemore all scored 10 apiece. Doughty scored a team-high 33 points.
“We made shots, we took our opponent seriously,” Pearl said. “… So we’ve talked about the fact that we’ve got a long way to go, we still got a long way to go. But we played better.”
Next, the Tigers will face off against Colgate on Monday at Auburn Arena. Game time is set for 7 p.m. CST.
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