No. 1 Auburn is continuing National Invitation Tournament (NIT) play this weekend, hosting No. 4 Seattle in Neville Arena. The Sunday night game will be the first matchup between the two schools in program history.
Auburn holds an 18-16 (7-11 SEC) record on the season, most recently defeating South Alabama in the first round of the NIT.
In the Tigers' last game, Kevin Overton stood out with 21 points, four assists and seven rebounds. After going 0-for-5 from 3-point range in the first half, Overton absolutely dominated the second half, scoring seven of the team’s 11 3-pointers to help lead Auburn to victory.
“The shots were falling in the second half,” Overton said. “In the first half I was trying to find that rhythm. When you make those simple ones, the other ones become easier.”
Even without the Tigers' star forward KeShawn Murphy, who opted out of playing in the NIT, the team prevailed. Keyshawn Hall racked up 21 points, combining with Tahaad Pettiford's 11 points and Elyjah Freeman's 10 rebounds to push the Tigers ahead of the Jaguars.
Freshman Kaden Magwood came off the bench hot, scoring a career-high 14 points and going 3-for-5 from 3-point range in the second half.
“Kaden played great off the bench in the second half, had a lot of step-up,” said head coach Steven Pearl. “Against that zone, you need guys who can knock down shots. Kaden’s been really good in practice; he’s stayed right and stayed ready. He’s been the best player on our scout team. I wanted to give him an opportunity, and he did a great job of taking advantage of it.”
As for Seattle, it earned its first NIT appearance since 1957 and grabbed a 67-52 victory over St. Thomas last Tuesday. Senior Brayden Maldonado led the Redhawks with 15 points, six rebounds and five assists. Seattle started slow in the first half of its first-round game, as well, much like Auburn did.
“We were very undisciplined to start the half,” Maldonado said. “Lackadaisical I think, is a good word for it. We kind of came out and were careless with the basketball. We know we can string a bunch of stops together. So, we knew when they went on that run it can get ugly.”
The Redhawks are led by 6-foot-10 Houran Dan and 7-foot Austin Maurer, but they were outrebounded against St. Thomas. If Auburn can take advantage of that and grab as many rebounds as possible, the game could favor the Tigers. Seattle may be optimistic heading into its road matchup, but Auburn is 12-4 at home this season, as the Jungle provides a strong home-court advantage.
“We’ve shown that we can beat some really good teams,” said sophomore guard Will Heimbrodt. “We had an ACC win and a Big 10 win. So going into Auburn... it’s going to be really fun. They’re a great team, but I think we can hang in there with anyone.”
Auburn and Seattle are set to face off inside Neville Arena on Sunday at 5:30 p.m. CST. The game can be found on ESPN2.
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