Fresh off a scare against Arkansas, No. 1 Auburn looks to inch closer to a Southeastern Conference regular-season title on Saturday when it hosts reeling Georgia.
Auburn (24-2, 12-1 SEC) leads both No. 2 Florida and No. 4 Alabama by two games atop the league standings. The Tigers are in search of their fifth SEC regular-season crown and their second No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament (since seeding began in 1978).
Those accomplishments were far from the team’s mind on Wednesday, when Auburn trailed Arkansas by a point with less than three minutes to go at home.
The top-ranked Tigers finished the game on a 10-2 run, escaping with a 67-60 victory. For an Auburn team that ranks sixth nationally with an average of 84.4 points per game, defense was the deciding factor in a game that saw the Tigers shoot just 4-for-24 (16.7 percent) from 3-point range.
“Our offense left a lot to be desired tonight,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said postgame. “Our execution wasn’t very good. I don’t think our shot selection was great. But our guys competed. They didn’t let the fact that we weren’t making shots and playing well offensively affect their defense.”
Keying Auburn’s remarkable season has been a balanced offense. Six Tigers average 10 points or more, including reserve Chaney Johnson’s 10.5. Johnson has scored in double figures five consecutive games, continuing the trend with 14 points off the bench against the Razorbacks.
“Chaney has been so consistent. What you see is what you get,” Pearl said. “He had a difficult matchup (Wednesday) and I thought he did a great job.”
Johni Broome, in a tight battle with Duke’s Cooper Flagg for the national player of the year, leads Auburn with averages of 18.0 points and 11.0 rebounds per game.
Georgia (16-10, 4-9) would see its postseason odds skyrocket with an upset on Saturday.
Playing in arguably one of the toughest conferences college basketball has seen, the Bulldogs have dropped their past seven meetings with ranked opponents, all in league play. Since picking up home wins over Kentucky and Oklahoma in early January, the Bulldogs have dropped eight of 10 overall, beating only two of the SEC’s worst teams, LSU and South Carolina.
Georgia put itself in position to earn resume-boosting wins in its past three outings against then-No. 8 Texas A&M, then-No. 22 Mississippi State and No. 21 Missouri but couldn’t finish successfully in any of those contests.
Leading by nine at halftime against the Aggies, Georgia was outscored 46-21 in the second half. A similar story unfolded on No. 15 at home against the Tigers, as the Bulldogs were outscored 49-33 after halftime en route to an 87-74 defeat.
“This is a mystery,” Georgia coach Mike White said. “I haven’t coached a team that’s struggled this much in the second half. I can’t put my finger on it. I’m going to get more feedback from our guys and that’ll be the next trial-and-error process. The message is clear. We have to be better defensively in the second half to beat a good SEC team.”
Projected NBA lottery pick Asa Newell leads Georgia with 15.3 points and 6.8 rebounds per contest. Silas Demary Jr. scores 11.9 points per contest, and Dakota Leffew averages 10.3.
–Field Level Media
