In Auburn’s 97-53 win over Eckerd in an exhibition game, the returning players dominated the scoreboard. Of Auburn’s 97 points, 71 belonged to J’Von McCormick, Danjel Purifoy, Samir Doughty, Austin Wiley and Anfernee McLemore combined.
“I thought Samir and J’Von played really well in the back court,” said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. “I thought Anfernee was a factor. It was great to see Danjel shoot the ball as well as he did. He can play more."
McCormick led the the Tigers with 20 points. He also had three rebounds and five assists. Purifoy and Doughty both scored 14 points. Purifoy had four rebounds and two steals while Doughty had three rebounds and four assists.
Wiley had a double-double on the night with 10 points and a team-leading 10 rebounds. McLemore finished the night with 13 points and nine rebounds.
“Austin had a double-double, and it was pretty quiet," Pearl said. "He’ll have nights where he’ll really dominate. He had 10 rebounds, and I thought they were actually pretty quiet.”
While the veteran players led the Tigers, a couple of newcomers showed what they can potentially bring to Auburn this year.
Freshman guard Devan Cambridge, who suffered a stress fracture in his right foot in mid-October and was not cleared until this week, spent 16 minutes on the court. In that time he scored 11 points and had four rebounds. He was 2-for-4 from behind the arc.
“He's a good energy guy,” Doughty said of Cambridge. “Super athletic. He's going to play hard. That's what we expected from him: to be getting out in transition and catching lobs and making open shots. So everything that y'all have seen from him tonight is what we've been seeing this whole offseason, so that's what we kind of expect. No surprises to us from how he played.”
Isaac Okoro, a freshman forward, made it on the starting lineup for the Tigers. He scored three points with four assists and four rebounds. He also had four fouls on the night.
“I'm not really sure how he played individually, defensively,” Doughty said of how Okoro played. “But just know he's going to be much better defensively. He's probably our best defensive player on the team, so. I expect more from him. I expect him to get more steals, more blocks. But, I mean, I just expect a lot from him because he's a great player.”
Auburn played 12 players during the game, a number Pearl plans to cut back over the next few games.
“We’ll probably cut back a little bit on the rotations,” Pearl said. “I played 12 guys tonight. I wanted to give a lot of guys some opportunities. We’ll probably cut that back a little bit these next few games.”
The standout concerns for the Tigers heading into their next game are their defensive play and keeping a better pace throughout the game, Pearl said.
Auburn jumped ahead 57-25 in the first half of the game. The Tigers scored their first points within 50 seconds of the game starting. In contrast, it took the Tigers almost a minute and a half to get a point in the second half. It was on a foul shot from Okoro.
The next Tiger points didn’t come until nearly three minutes later. In the first five minutes of the second half, Auburn missed 11 of its 12 shot attempts.
“I thought we played pretty well in the first half,” Pearl said. “Disappointed in the start of the second half. We just didn’t play with much effort and energy.”
Defense also stood out to Pearl, with Eckerd having 18 offensive rebounds and communication lacking.
“I thought we could have communicated better defensively,” Pearl said. “Eighteen offensive rebounds for them is way too many. I thought we had some unforced turnovers.”
Auburn will face off against Georgia Southern to kick-off its 2019-20 season. Game time is set for 8 p.m. CST on Tuesday.
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