No. 11 South Carolina arrived at Neville Arena with a seven-game win streak and a lead in the SEC standings. It left with a 40-point loss as No. 13 Auburn broke its heart on Valentine’s Day, handing the Gamecocks a 101-61 defeat – by far their worst loss of the season.
It was the second straight week that the Tigers (20-5, 9-3 SEC) beat an SEC leader at Neville Arena, with the win over the Gamecocks following an 18-point win over Alabama a week prior. It was the Tigers’ 20th win of the season – the third straight season and the sixth time in the last seven seasons Auburn has reached that benchmark.
The win was the Tigers' seventh straight over the Gamecocks – their longest current win streak over an SEC opponent.
“That’s sort of a number that matters to coaches,” said head coach Bruce Pearl. “We pay attention to 20.”
The Gamecocks (21-4, 9-3 SEC) got out to a 9-4 lead under three minutes into the game. From then on, it was all Auburn as the Tigers earned their largest win of the season. It was the third time Auburn broke the century mark this season and the first time in SEC play.
The Tigers’ offense was nearly unstoppable against the SEC’s top scoring defense. The Gamecocks, who came into the game allowing just 64 points per game, gave up a season-high 101 to the Tigers. The previous most any team scored against the Gamecocks was 77 by Virginia Tech.
The Tigers shot 61% from the field, going 36-of-59, and were almost equally good from behind the arc, where they made 12 of their 20 3-pointers, a 60% rate. Auburn missed just two free throws, going 17-of-19 at the foul line.
Just as in its game against the Crimson Tide, Auburn was led by Jaylin Williams and Johni Broome. The duo combined for 50 against Alabama and followed that up by scoring a combined 44 points against South Carolina in their next home game. Williams led the way with 23, while Broome scored 21 for the Tigers.
As opposed to the game against Alabama in which they were a force on the interior, Williams and Broome were nearly unstoppable from 3-point range against South Carolina. Williams did the bulk of his damage in the first half while Broome was dominant in the second half. Williams was 5-of-7 from behind the arc, with a 4-of-5 mark before halftime. Broome made three of his four 3-pointers after the half.
“Jaylin’s 5-for-7 and Johni is 4-for-5 so when you get nine 3-balls from your starting frontcourt, it kind of makes everything you might try to do offensively work right,” Pearl said.
The combined 9-of-12 performance from 3-point range led the Tigers’ starting frontcourt players to dub themselves the “Splash Bros.”
“Once we see that first one go in, we get that confidence and we’ve got our coaches and teammates confidence,” Broome said. “Just going to the hot hand and making plays to win the game.”
Though most of the attention went to Williams and Broome, Tre Donaldson had a productive night as well, scoring 11 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Donaldson dished out four assists, second only to Dylan Cardwell’s five, and had two steals. Chad Baker-Mazara scored 10, making all four shots he attempted, including two from behind the arc.
Auburn shared the ball well against the Gamecocks, with the Tigers tallying 22 assists on their 36 made baskets. As opposed to Saturday’s game against Florida in which turnovers hampered the Auburn offense, the Tigers only turned the ball over seven times, with South Carolina only scoring eight points off turnovers.
Meanwhile, the Tigers consistently turned defense into offense, forcing 13 South Carolina turnovers and scoring 25 points off the Gamecock miscues.
“I think the other thing that was important was we also disrupted them offensively,” Pearl said. “We turned them over, we were aggressive and made plenty of offense out of our defense…”
In stark contrast to Auburn’s dominant offensive night, South Carolina struggled mightily shooting the ball. The Gamecocks were just 18-of-52 from the field and 3-of-15 from behind the arc. The only consistent offense South Carolina had was the free throws, where the Gamecocks were 22-of-28.
Auburn now sits in second place in the SEC, just a half-game behind conference leader Alabama. The Tigers and Gamecocks have equal conference records with the Tigers owning an emphatic tiebreaking win over South Carolina.
The big week at Neville Arena continues on Saturday, as College GameDay will be in attendance as the Tigers host No. 22 Kentucky.
“I would say we prepare for each team like it’s the same game,” Williams said. “We’re going to figure out tomorrow what they like to do. We’ve got an idea.”
GameDay will begin at 9 a.m. CST on ESPN and the game will tip off at 5 p.m. CST, also on ESPN.
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Matthew is a senior from Huntsville, Alabama, majoring in journalism. He started with The Plainsman in fall 2021.
Twitter: @mattwallaceAU
