Auburn offense awakens in second-half rout against Washington

It took sometime to pull away from the Huskies, but Auburn made the best of its chances in the second half to defeat Washington on its home court. 

In Auburn's first trip to Washington in the program's history, the Tigers won 84-61. Auburn's record grows to 10-2 as Washington falls to 9-4. 

The Tigers began hitting everything in the second half, from the paint, from the three point arc. It was an avalanche of points from Auburn. At one point late in the second frame, the Tigers were shooting 74% from the field. The Huskies struggled to keep up as they traded baskets but could not get the critical stops. Washington struggled mightily to hit the three point shot, shooting 5-20 through the whole game.

The most impactful deficit was the rebounds. The Tigers out-rebounded the Huskies 42 to 24, a colossal mismatch, in part to why Washington was defeated. 

Jaylin Williams and Johni Broome were Auburn's leading scorers, adding 18 points apiece, with 14 of Broome's coming during the team's dominant second-half shooting performance.

“That was an important game for us,” said head coach Bruce Pearl. “Obviously, losing Sunday to USC was disappointing, and it’s been a long trip. I thought the guys responded really well. I thought Steven Pearl and his team did an outstanding job on the scout. We were very prepared. We thought we had the advantage inside, and we went inside to Johni and Jaylin often."

When the Tigers lost to USC, it was in part to 23 turnovers. The Tigers were looking to limit turnovers and foul less. It was a tale of two halves in this game. In the first half, it was not a good showing by either offensively. 

In the first minutes of the game, neither team could get the offense rolling. It took the Huskies over five minutes of game time to get their first field goal of the night. Through the first seven minutes of game time, both teams had a combined three field goals. It was a tale of strong defenses causing struggling offenses to look really bad.

Things started to get hot when Wendell Green Jr. got a layup and a foul. The Tigers began to extend a lead of double digits. As the time was running out on the first half, the Huskies suddenly came to life and had a 9-0 run to cut the lead to single digits and regain momentum. That momentum was halted when Williams was fouled on a three point attempt, where he hit two of three of his free throws. Williams had 14 points going into halftime. 

“I thought Jaylin Williams was the best player on the floor,” Pearl said. “He had the matchup with (Keion) Brooks, and he was able to shut him down, he made plays, and Jaylin’s inside-out ability really shined.”

Going into the break, Auburn had had plenty of chances in the first half and did not capitalize often. Washington had played a rough first half and was only down single digits. There was optimism from both sides after halftime.

“I feel like the first half I was a little wild,” said Broome. “I was trying to get too close to the basket instead of just trusting myself. In the second half, it really didn’t matter where the defense was. If I was able to get the shot off, I had the confidence in myself that it was going in.”

The second half was the exact opposite for both teams. It featured fast-paced, high-scoring offense on both sides, with little to no defensive stops. When there was defensive stops, it was from the Tigers, as the Huskies struggled to stop the duo of Green Jr. and Broome. With a large group of Auburn supporters in the Alaska Airlines Arena making noise, the Tigers began to pull away.

Auburn handed Washington their worst loss of the young season. Auburn will take a week off to rest before starting conference play against the Florida Gators. Washington will take the next nine days off and then hosts Auburn's recent opponent, USC, in a PAC-12 matchup. 

The Tigers will host Florida at 6 p.m. CST at Neville Arena on Dec. 28, broadcast on ESPN2, where they look to repeat as SEC regular season champions.