Keyshawn Hall led the Big 12 in scoring last season during his only campaign at UCF.
Now at Auburn, Hall looks intent on making a run at top scorer status in the Southeastern Conference.
Hall seeks his third straight stellar outing when he leads the 20th-ranked Tigers into Tuesday night’s nonconference contest against visiting Wofford.
The 6-foot-7 Hall averaged 26.5 points and 11 rebounds in his first two games with Auburn (2-0). He had 28 points and eight rebounds in the season-opening 95-90 overtime victory over Bethune-Cookman on Nov. 3 and followed up with 25 points and 14 boards in Thursday’s 95-57 rout of Merrimack.
Hall said he enjoyed his time at UCF but feels he’s going to be given room to be an even bigger force with the Tigers.
“It was a great year at UCF. They put me in a lot of great positions to give me the ball,” Hall told reporters. “Here at Auburn, I don’t think I have to try as much. I don’t think I have to iso as much. They run plays for me to be wide open or for me to get downhill and things like that.”
Hall also is adept at earning points from the free-throw line. He is 28 of 31 (90.3%) in two games.
“My biggest thing coming from Cleveland, being physical, so I’m trying to get fouled,” the 240-pound Hall said. “I’m trying to throw my body around, trying to get into somebody. That’s how I make my living right there.”
Auburn is Hall’s fourth school in four seasons. He was a freshman reserve at UNLV and then averaged 16.5 points and 8.1 rebounds as a sophomore starter at George Mason.
Last season, Hall averaged 18.8 points and 7.1 rebounds for UCF. He also led the Big 12 with 199 free throws made while knocking down a personal-best 45 treys.
In the victory over Merrimack, Auburn had a dominating 55-24 rebounding edge and collected 21 on the offensive end.
“That’s a positive,” Tigers coach Steven Pearl said. “Our guys did a better job in the second half keeping them off the offensive glass.”
Wofford (1-1) bounced back from a season-opening 70-46 loss at George Mason to deliver an 86-76 win over visiting Milwaukee on Saturday.
The Terriers led by as many as 19 points while giving new coach Kevin Giltner his first head-coaching victory.
“We had a great couple of days leading into (the game),” Giltner said. “The guys just answered the challenge. … The guys wanted to punch first, but I told them, ‘You can punch them all you want, but you have to keep punching,’ and I think we did.”
Giltner, 36, played four seasons (2008-12) for Wofford and averaged 14.8 points per game as a senior. He spent five seasons as an assistant coach for the Terriers (2014-19) before being on the Virginia Tech staff the past six seasons.
Kahmare Holmes scored a career-high 24 points against Milwaukee and backup Brian Sumpter had 21 points and 11 rebounds for his first career double-double.
Holmes averages a team-leading 14 points per game. Sumpter and Nils Machowski each average 11.5.
–Field Level Media
