On Wednesday night, Auburn won its first SEC game of the season 95-77 in Athens, Georgia. Leading the way for Auburn was Sharife Cooper, who had his first career double-double in just his second career game.
“If you’re open, [Cooper] is going to find you,” said head coach Bruce Pearl. “He’s going to give you easy ones. The dimes he drops are open shots. I thought he was better defensively tonight. I thought he was more physical. I thought he checked out his position. I thought he guarded better tonight, and that’s what we need to do as we continue to move forward.”
Coming into the game, slow starts had been a common trend for the Tigers in conference play. According to the SEC Network broadcast, in the four SEC games that Auburn had played in before Wednesday, they had led for a total of 2:57 in first halves.
That was not the case against Georgia, where the Tigers never trailed throughout the first 20 minutes of play.
Jamal Johnson got things started for the Tigers, drilling a 3-pointer to kick things off. Auburn began the game 4-for-4 from the field with JT Thor and Cooper contributing, and the Tigers were up 10-4.
Devan Cambridge and Cooper led the team in first-half points, with eight apiece. Cooper not only showcased his ability to score in the first half but also dished out assists with eight in the first half.
“[Cooper] just shares it,” Pearl said. “Whether you’re at the rim or whether you’re at the perimeter, he’s hard to guard and it makes what we do harder to guard.”
Auburn extended its lead to double digits, going up 21-10 with 11:15 remaining in the first half. Georgia’s K.D. Johnson, who was recently cleared by the NCAA and making his collegiate debut, scored five of the next six Georgia points to cut the lead down to 21-16.
Despite the Bulldogs keeping it close, Auburn took a 45-34 lead into halftime.
Georgia opened the second half on a 7-0 run to bring the Auburn lead within four, but the Tigers fired back. A 15-1 run ensued for the Tigers, where several Auburn players found themselves in the scoring column.
During the run, five different Tigers contributed in pushing the lead to 60-42, the largest at the time. Allen Flanigan, Dylan Cardwell, Johnson, Thor and Cooper all had shots go down during the run that lasted over four minutes.
The Tigers saw their lead grow to as many as 23 points in the second half, Cooper leading the charge with 20 second-half points.
Against Georgia, Cooper ended the evening with 28 points, 12 assists and five rebounds.
Thor finished with 11 points following his career-best 15-point performance on Saturday against Alabama. The 6-foot-10 freshman from Anchorage, Alaska, shot 100% from the floor and 4-of-7 from the free-throw line.
“[Thor] had a really, really good game,” Pearl said. “Quietly, he’s putting together back-to-back really good games. JT is improving. His improvement has been very, very visible.”
On the defensive side of the ball, it was a block party in Athens. The Tigers recorded 14 total blocks, with Williams and Cambridge leading the team in blocks with five each.
“It started off with defense,” Cambridge said. “That’s what Pearl is always talking about, ‘We need to come out and play defense this game,’ so we locked in on that today, and it showed. We played a lot better today on the defensive end.”
Georgia shot 41.8% from the field and was 17-of-34 from the free-throw line. Auburn outrebounded the Bulldogs 40-38.
Auburn lacked its typical 3-point shooting that’s prevalent in Pearl’s offense, shooting 5-of-20 from beyond the arc. However, the Tigers found success in the transition offense, relying on fast breaks to score 29 of its 95 points.
“Our guards had their head up,” Pearl said. “Got the ball down, so that was good to get some easy ones.”
As a team, the Tigers registered 19 assists, which is tied for second-most in a game this season. The extra passes spread the ball out and resulted in six Tigers scoring in double figures.
Cooper, Johnson, Thor, Flanigan, Williams and Cambridge all had 10-plus points. The Tigers' 95 points are the most Auburn has scored on the road against an SEC team since Feb. 21, 2017.
“Just playing unselfish,” Cooper said. “Not playing for yourself, playing for everybody else. Just seeing everybody smile and seeing everybody contribute, it’s just a great feeling that you can bring back to the locker room and build on”.
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