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Men vs. Xavier - Post-game thread


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Hate I missed the game. Following the game thread saved me, a big thank you to those posting updates. It's great to be excited about AU BB again. Great win

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Looking at what happened to most of the SEC today, AU would seem to have a good chance of moving into the top half of he conference. UK slaughtered UCLA but some surprising losses elsewhere including Vandy. Hope the place is packed for that game when SEC play starts.

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AUBURN, Ala. Bruce Pearl won his biggest game in his short tenure as Auburn's head coach when his Tigers dug out of a hole to beat Xavier 89-88 in double overtime before a roaring crowd in Auburn Arena on Saturday night.

Malcolm Canada's two free throws with 14 seconds remaining won it.

It was a see-saw game during the latter stages of regulation, through the first overtime and again in the second.

Canada's gritty play sparked the Tigers in the second half, and his free throw won it.

Auburn improved to 5-5. Xavier fell to 8-3.

Auburn trailed by 14 points with 13 minutes to play, and seemed to play in a 10-or-so-point hole after some early success. But the Tigers began chipping away behind a crowd that first caught the fever on a couple of Canada acrobatic baskets, and the teammates who caught on.

Cinmeon Bowers hit the go-ahead basket with eight seconds left in regulation as Auburn closed in on a win, but Remy Abell tied it with three seconds left on two free throws.

The teams traded the lead, and spent a lot of the time tied, the rest of the way.

The crowd roared as Auburn came back to cut the lead to 56-49, then roared again as the Tigers stayed close, at 58-53 with 8:10 remaining on a Cinmeon Bowers dunk, and continued to cheer as Auburn played it close, down 61-57, 62-59 and 64-63 with 3:01 left.

KT Harrell's 3-point gave Auburn its first lead, and K.C. Ross-Miller's basket made it 68-65 with 1:12 left, then he made it 70-65 on a steal and basket. Cinmeon Bowers hit a free throw with 37 seconds left for a 71-68 lead. A Xavier 3-pointer tied it with 18 seconds remaining.

Auburn started well enough, leading by a handful early on, and staying close through the middle stages of the first half by playing tough defense. But Xavier slowly overcame the defense to take a 38-25 halftime lead.

The Tigers had trouble inside, especially when Cinmeon Bowers got in foul trouble early on and had to sit out 13 minutes of the first half. New big man Trayvon Reed played 12. Auburn had trouble scoring, too. Antoine Mason led Auburn with seven points at the half, though he had made only one field goal.

Check back for more details and comments from Bruce Pearl...

Check back for more details and comments from Bruce Pearl...

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Very nice win. In a normal Xavier year, that adds tons O' cred to your strength of schedule and quality wins.....

Excellent job....

HOWEVER, put Reed on the line and put him to work....Woeful down the stretch....

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Guest jojo1515

The last 2 games are both better than almost every game we have played over the last 4 years. I haven't seen that kind of determination to win at AU since Chris Porter was there. Complete team effort tonight. From Sid-Deen getting hurt and coming back in anyways to Reed becoming a defensive force to Canada having the best game of his career to our normal stars doing their normal double doubles and hitting clutch threes.....haven't seen a team effort like that in a very long time.

The most surprising thing to me in this win is the fact that these guys aren't even used to playing together yet and still had the composure to not only come back from down 14 to push overtime, but to not lose the drive and push a second OT, and then still have enough drive to finish with a win against a team that may be talented enough to make the sweet sixteen.

Just can't say enough how big this win was and the way it was won. Bruce Pearl so far is a magician. Fantastic game all the way around.

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Cool win. I followed the last several minutes and all the OTs refreshing the screen while watching an old movie. So glad for us and Coach. War Eagle.

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Great win! Big time comeback and did what was needed to pull it out. Was huge having another big body to put in. Coming together nicely.

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Very nice win. In a normal Xavier year, that adds tons O' cred to your strength of schedule and quality wins.....

Excellent job....

HOWEVER, put Reed on the line and put him to work....Woeful down the stretch....

Not at all surprising with a 7'2 freshman big. I'm surprised he hit two.

Love seeing him out there, though. Not many that can alter a shot like him.

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Guest jojo1515

Was there. Crowd was great in the second. The comeback was awesome

Players meet us at the exits again they were so excited

Come again?

Do the players run through the locker room and meet students outside of the stadium as they are coming out?

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Was there. Crowd was great in the second. The comeback was awesome

Players meet us at the exits again they were so excited

Come again?

Do the players run through the locker room and meet students outside of the stadium as they are coming out?

They go out the student section entrance up the steps then go to the area outside the fan store

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Guest jojo1515

Was there. Crowd was great in the second. The comeback was awesome

Players meet us at the exits again they were so excited

Come again?

Do the players run through the locker room and meet students outside of the stadium as they are coming out?

They go out the student section entrance up the steps then go to the area outside the fan store

That's pretty cool. When I played sports, it was straight to the locker room regardless of outcome and then however long it took to get cleaned up and back to street clothes. Pretty cool to get out there with the students like that

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I think this was a program defining win! We played the toughest team that we've played all year, and Bruce finally got this team to fight back and close it out down the stretch.

We still have plenty of things that we need to work on. But if we can continue to attack the basket instead of settling for 3's and get better from the free throw line, then we're going to be a very dangerous team!

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It was an awesome game. Great to see the team just keep fighting.. Nothing got to them. They just kept playing basketball and it paid off in a big way. Super exciting game to watch. Props to the crowd too for staying in it and supporting this team.. This will be a fun ride.

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