GAME REVIEW: Auburn 109, South Carolina 86

Well, that was easy. Auburn recovered after their hard defeat at Fayetteville on Wednesday night to explode and mark a century, dominating South Carolina 109-86 from start to finish.

With a Gamecock team a little shorthanded and out of practice, this game almost served as an amalgamation for Tigers to get a little more practice. South Carolina played just 6 games in almost 2 months after dealing with positive COVID on the left and right. Frank Martin even tested positive twice and was clearly not fully cured yet. Despite this, today’s game was an efficient and professional Tigers explosion.

Sharife Cooper hit the double mark in the first half, and the Allen Flanigan / Jaylin Williams combination scored 42 points while Auburn easily surpassed South Carolina. Five Tigers in total reached the double-digit mark, while the Gamecocks made a fantastic effort AJ Lawson with 23 points in defeat.

The first half started in a balanced way, with both sides coming and going in the first six minutes and changing. Jaylin Williams and JT Thor hit each top three for Auburn, but the Seventh Woods tray at 17:39 gave South Carolina a 7-6 lead at the time. After 12-11 at the 13:52 mark, Keyshawn Bryant hit a pair of false kicks, but that was the last time the Gamecocks led. Allen Flanigan’s three moments gave Auburn an advantage she would never give up.

Midway through the break, Auburn led 23-14 after Javon Frankln’s fastbreak tray, and just before the sub-8 timeout, Jamal Johnson’s three placed the Tigers 28-15. The lead dropped to single digits a few times, but Auburn responded every time and was never really threatened after that. In the final minute of the break, Auburn took three backs from Devan Cambridge and Jaylin Williams before Sharife Cooper’s three foul shots in the final seconds put Tigers in the top 57-42 at halftime. At that time, Cooper had 10 points and 11 assists with 5 rebounds.

The second half started as the first ended, with Auburn extending the lead. Tigers opened with a 6-0 streak to take the lead to 21 points, and continued. In the middle of the second period, another Devan Cambridge three increased the margin to 27 points, and then grew further with Thor’s tray to push the lead to 91-62 two minutes later. Auburn’s lead reached the 30-point mark while the clock clocked less than 7 minutes to go, but Allen Flanigan’s three to extend the lead to 99-68 built the biggest advantage of the afternoon with 31 points. Auburn brought the walk-ons a few minutes later, but Stretch Akingbola was honored to push the Tigers past the 100-point mark in a dunk with 5:01 remaining.

Auburn crossed from there to win 109-86 and improve to 9-7 in the overall year. It was the first 100-point game in an SEC game since the Tigers defeated Alabama 102-62 in February 1999.

FINAL STATISTICS