Bruce Pearl and his Auburn Tigers will host Chattanooga, their third non-conference opponent of a four-game homestand before starting league play on the road in Fayetteville, Arkansas a week from Saturday night's contest.
“So we've had quite a stretch of having some great games and some great environments. And it's been really good. You know, we're in position now to be in position,” Pearl said following the win against Alabama State last Friday.
The Mocs will travel to Neville Arena following an 85-83 overtime defeat at Milwaukee last Friday, snapping a three-game win streak for Chattanooga. Trailing by as many as 16 in the first half, the Mocs forced overtime after scoring 49 second-half points before ultimately falling in the extra period.
The loss at Milwaukee is just the second loss, now 14-2, for Chattanooga under head coach Dan Earl when holding its opponent to under 40% in field goals, and just the fourth loss, now 19-4, in the same span when out-shooting its opponent.
“You know, they're eight and four right now in the Southern Conference and a good team, a real high-scoring team as well,” Pearl said.
Earl, who enters his second season with the Mocs, has made his name in the SoCon with fast-paced, 3-point shooting offenses. Earl’s teams have finished either first or second nationally in 3-pointers made per game in the past three seasons, excluding the 2020-21 COVID-affected season.
This offseason, the Mocs had to replace 79.1% of its scoring from the 2022-23 season and welcomed a total of 10 newcomers to the 2023-24 bench.
Notably, former Florida and VMI guard Trey Bonham has made an immediate impact since his first action on Dec. 16 at Alabama A&M.
Bonham is averaging 18.0 points per game and 5.3 assists per game through three games highlighted by becoming SportsCenter's No. 1 play with a halfcourt, buzzer-beating three to beat Gardner-Webb 69-66 in his home debut on Dec. 19.
“You know, we've lost two games so far. And Baylor's backcourt and Appalachian State's backcourt outplayed us. It's just a fact,” Pearl said prior to the Alabama State matchup. “And so obviously it's been a big focus I think. Tre (Donaldson) and Aden (Holloway)'s recognition as younger players with knowing that night in and night out everybody's got pretty good guards so our guards got to bring it every night.”
In the three games prior to the Tigers’ win over the Hornets, Auburn posted single-digit turnover totals in three straight games. In that stretch, the backcourt duo of Holloway and Donaldson combined to average 26.0 points on 54.9 percent shooting from the floor and 46.2 percent from 3-point range and 7.7 assists with a total of just three turnovers.
The performance right before the four-day Christmas break against Alabama State wasn’t nearly as clean with 18 team turnovers and six from the point guard duo.
“I just thought our focus was sloppy. We had some selfish play,” Pearl said. “You know a lot of it has to do with just over-dribbling. And again, I just thought that we didn't make our teammates better tonight.”
It will be important for Auburn to play a clean game against the up-tempo Mocs and get off to a fast start due to Chattanooga’s recent slow starts.
The Mocs have been outscored 67-49 and shot 27.7% from the field in the first half of the last two games while playing to a 92-71 advantage and shooting 53.3% in the final period of play – scoring 40 or more second-half points in its last six games, tying its longest stretch since the 2013-14 season.
From deep during that span, Chattanooga is a combined 2-of-28 (0.71%) in the first half of play and 18-of-31 (58.1%) after halftime.
“I just wanted to give a shout out that it’s really a ticket for those fans that are home over the holidays, you know after Christmas and before New Year's there's gonna be an opportunity for people to be able to come for the Chattanooga game,” Pearl said. “So I just wanted to promote the game a little bit.”
With Auburn’s football team competing in Nashville, Tennessee in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl against Maryland at 1 p.m. CST, Pearl decided to move the tipoff for the Chattanooga game to 8 p.m. CST to provide fans the ability to watch both games on Saturday. Television coverage of the matchup inside of Neville Arena can be found on SEC Network.
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Patrick is a sophomore from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He started with The Plainsman in fall 2022.
