There was almost no-doubt of what was about to come when Miles Kelly got the ball from three-point land on Wednesday night, as the Georgia Tech transfer set Neville Arena ablaze with his 21-point performance. Kelly led the charge in the Tigers' prolific effort from the field, going 7-9 from deep – with five consecutive in the second half.
“Honestly, like after the fourth one, I kind of just blacked out,” said Kelly. “Like everything I threw up was going in and my teammates did a good job of finding me, and I just knocked the shots down.”
Mixed in with a breakaway slam from freshman counterpart Jahki Howard, Kelly’s three-point barrage blew the roof off the building in route to, what was at one point, a 57-point lead from the Tigers.
“I fed off it (the crowd) a lot. I mean, shoot, it’s my second time playing in Neville. My teammates, Denver (Jones), all of them, they’re telling me how crazy the jungle is. And today, I finally - well, last game I witnessed it for first time - but today was extra special for sure,” Kelly said.
Dealing with an illness heading into Auburn’s first exhibition game against Furman, and not quite 100%, condition-wise, in last Friday’s game against Florida Atlantic, head coach Bruce Pearl knew what kind of production Kelly would bring to the table in the season opener, and his team-high seven threes came by no surprise.
“Look, he is an NBA caliber 3-point shooter. If he sees it, he can make it. Vermont probably didn’t have a lot of scouting on Miles Kelly, probably looked at some stuff he did back at Georgia Tech. It was not like we got him great shots. He was shooting from anywhere. I thought he had one from Opelika one time, but he was open, so he shot it.”
The Tigers shot a whopping 56% from the field and 46% from deep, hitting 16-35 shots from beyond the arc. Four other Tigers joined Kelly in the three-point party, with Chad Baker-Mazara, JP Pegues, Johni Broome and Jones the ones who chimed in.
Jones, highly regarded for his three-point prowess as well, gave hint to Tiger fans of what was to come at SEC Media days, but did not want to spoil what was to come from the prolific backcourt duo. Jones was reminded of his remarks when watching Kelly light up the scoreboard on Wednesday night.
“The first thing that came to mind when I was at (SEC) Media Days, everyone asked me who the best shooter was. I told them, ‘look, we have Miles (Kelly) and I am not going to elaborate too much, but y’all will see when the season starts.’ Sure enough, he showed that today.”
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Logan Fowler is a Senior from Sumiton, Alabama and is majoring in journalism. He joined the Plainsman in Spring 2024.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @loganffowler
