Auburn’s defense played a pivotal role in the team’s 98-70 dismantling of Oklahoma on Tuesday night. The Tigers held the Sooners to 33% from the field and 30% from the 3-point line, marking Oklahoma’s worst shooting night of its season.
“Oklahoma is an outstanding offensive team,” said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. “The fact that we held them under, that would be the story to me.”
In the Sooners win over a ranked Vanderbilt, they scored 61 points in the second half. Auburn held Oklahoma to 70 points over two halves.
Auburn ended the night with 11 blocked shots while Oklahoma managed zero. Four Tigers recorded a block, including a team-high and career-high six from Dylan Cardwell and three from Johni Broome.
“The fact that we were able to block 11 shots – Johni had three, Dylan had six and Chaney had one…I thought that was a key to us being able to hold them down,” Pearl said.
The Sooners turned the ball over 15 times while the Tigers grabbed nine steals and 14 fast break points. 46 of Auburn’s points were scored in the paint, and the Tigers went 24-for-35 from inside-the-paint against Oklahoma.
Largely due to the defensive effort of guard Denver Jones, Auburn held Jeremiah Fears – Oklahoma’s best guard – to ten points. Fears went 1-for-8 from the field, making a single 3-pointer. The rest of his points came from the free throw line.
“Cutting the head off the snake,” Jones said of the effort to disrupt Fears’ offensive performance. “That's one of the things that could really damage the team. So that was part of our game plan tonight.”
Jones ended the night 4-for-4 from the field and 2-for-2 from the charity stripe, picking up no personal fouls while adding three rebounds and four assists.
The Tigers win over Oklahoma marked the team’s 14th straight win, bringing Auburn’s conference record to 9-0. Up next, the second half of SEC play is underway, as Auburn will face off against No. 6 Florida at Neville Arena on Saturday, Feb. 8.
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Grace Heim is a senior from Enterprise, Alabama, majoring in Political Science. She started with The Plainsman in January of 2023.
You can follow her on X (Twitter) at @graceeheim
