Auburn looks to hold off Tennessee in Auburn Arena as the season starts to draw to a close. Following a 57-74 loss to Florida without Sharife Cooper, Saturday’s matchup with the Volunteers will be a defensive battle.
Cooper injured his ankle during practice for Florida, which left the Tigers struggling without their leading scorer. They will continue to go without him this week, and potentially for the remainder of the season.
“I think he’s doubtful,” said head Coach Bruce Pearl. “The only other caveat that I could consider would obviously be at this point that we’re not playing to get in the tournament, so if he had to strap it up to play the last game to get a win to get in, or we knew it would be something as far as getting a seed, maybe. He’ll get back as fast as he can, but he won’t get back until he’s ready.”
In Cooper’s absence against the Gators, Devan Cambridge stepped up to lead the Tigers with 13 points and Jaylin Williams tacked on 11 behind him. JT Thor and Jamal Johnson added 10 points each.
The Volunteers come in with a 9-6 conference record. This will be the first time these two teams play since their last meeting in March 2020, where the Tigers won 85-63.
Tennessee currently has the third most efficient defense in the nation, with the highest scoring defense in the SEC. Without Cooper at point guard, where he was averaging 20.2 points per game, the Tigers will have to maintain a stronger defense to minimize this disruption to their starting lineup.
Pearl said the Tigers will have to focus specifically on defending Victor Bailey, Jaden Springer, and Keon Johnson. These three players account for roughly 42% of the Volunteer’s offense over their last six games.
“Now without Sharife, we know we score about ten less,” Pearl said. “Our ability to try and defend them is going to be really important to our ability to have a chance to win this basketball game.”
Auburn and the Volunteers tip off at 11:00 a.m. Saturday morning in Auburn Arena. The game will air on ESPN.
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Callie Stanford is from Springville, Alabama and is currently a sophomore at Auburn. She has been with The Plainsman since January 2021.
Twitter: @Stanford1Callie
