ATHENS, Ga. — The No. 1 Auburn Tigers completed a season sweep of their rival, the Georgia Bulldogs, by squeezing by in a 74-72 victory in Athens on Saturday. They push their winning streak to 19 and improve to 22-1 on the season.
The team competed in the game without starting guard Zep Jasper, who was out due to an illness. This brought guard Wendell Green Jr. into the starting five, and increased the playing time of guard Preston Cook.
“We needed to make us some big plays to win this game,” said head coach Bruce Pearl. “We were shorthanded on Zep today, so we didn't have our whole team. So, we had to do a couple more things for our team and step up in this place.”
Normally, Green is a key player off the bench, but he finished with 38 minutes, almost 11 more than the 25 he averages.
“It’s a different rhythm… I missed having Zep out there and sharing minutes with him," Green said. "A few of my shots came up short late in the game (due to fatigue)."
Jabari Smith and Wendell Green Jr. knocked in two consecutive threes to start the game, but the deep game faltered from there. The Tigers finished 6-for-26 on 3-point shots (23.1%).
Green and K.D. Johnson combined for 27 first-half points, with 15 and 12, respectively. The duo also saw the floor more than anybody. Green played for 18 first-half minutes, while Johnson was active for 16 minutes in his former home of Stegeman Coliseum.
Confidently, Auburn trotted into the locker room for halftime with a 42-30 lead. It looked dominant, as Georgia went the last 3:11 without a bucket.
After Auburn led for 18:32 in the first half, and the other 1:28 was an even score, Georgia came out scorching hot in the second half and threatened to take the lead. An 11-0 scoring run left Georgia within one with 15:13 left.
When Georgia’s Noah Bauman hit a corner three, it was a tie game for the first time in the second half with 10:56 remaining on the clock. The lead was short-lived, as Preston Cook immediately hit Johnson for a lay-up to knot it up once again at 58.
A few back-and-forth buckets followed before Green bobbled the ball and went up for the go-ahead two-point score with 3.3 seconds left in the contest. This bucket turned out to be the deciding basket, as Georgia was not able with a score of its own on a desperation lob from mid-court.
The Auburn squad made frequent substitutions throughout the opening half. 10 different players saw playing time in the game. Against Georgia, the last team in the conference, the Tigers sought to rest starters in preparation for a busy month of February.
As the game got close in the second half, Auburn was forced to keep its starters on the floor. It ended up having three guys play over 30 minutes in Green, Johnson and Smith. Kessler followed with 29 minutes and Allen Flanigan behind him with 25.
Johnson led the Tigers in scoring with 20 points, adding four rebounds and two steals. The combination of him and Green Jr., who tallied 19 points, accounted for more than half of the scoring effort.
February 5, 2022; Athens, Georgia; K.D. Johnson (0) shoots the ball from the cherry stripe in a match between Auburn and Georgia in Stegeman Coliseum.
“It felt okay [to put up 20 on my former team.] I wanted the team to play a lot better, but we came in and got the win in a tough Georgia stadium, so I’m feeling okay about that,” Johnson said.
It was another tough game offensively from Auburn’s star freshman Smith. He only put up seven shots and made just two of them for seven points. No. 10 still helped his team with six rebounds, an assist, block and steal.
Walker Kessler also notably did not have one of his better games offensively. He finished with 10 points on only seven total shots.
“I’m not sure any of our guys would feel like this was one of our better games,” Pearl said. “We got it done.”
However, Kessler had a big impact down the stretch with his defensive effort. He swatted four blocks, one of which was on a Georgia 3-pointer in the closing minutes of second half.
February 5, 2022; Athens, Georgia; Walker Kessler (13) blocks a shot from the three-point line in a match between Auburn and Georgia in Stegeman Coliseum.
His nine-rebound effort led the team to a 46-35 advantage in rebounding as well.
“[Kessler was] very big," Pearl said. "There was a couple shots we missed, and he came up with half of them -- I'm not quite sure what rebounds he ended with, but he played a big part in that. He got rebounds and finished right back."
Auburn, the nation’s leader in blocks with 8.1 per game, added nine more in the game.
Once again, the team pulled out a hard-fought win on the road after being down late in the game, when its players did not have a hot shooting performance.
Auburn stays undefeated in conference play with the narrow victory over Georgia in a game in which it was a 16.5-point favorite.
“I believe we're becoming a great team,” said Pearl. “We're comfortable with any situation. We've been down multiple times; we go through this quite often playing on the road. Us just talking to each other, saying it's going to come, it's going to come, we're going to get fouls and get shots. Just muscle through and get the W.”
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