12/19/22

[aubiefifty 16,658]

 

[aubiefifty 16,658]

 

[aubiefifty 16,658]

 

[aubiefifty 16,658]

5 takeaways from Auburn's 74-71 loss at USC

Nathan King

9–11 minutes

---

For an Auburn team looking to find its offensive footing after recent struggles, it didn't give itself much of a chance with an onslaught of turnovers and mistakes down the stretch of the team's second loss in three games.

The Tigers shot 47 percent from the floor and 35 percent from beyond the arc, but a mess of turnovers and fouls were too much to overcome in a 74-71 loss in Los Angeles on Sunday evening.

"Thought we played better tonight," Bruce Pearl said after the loss. "We gave ourselves a chance. We talked after the Georgia State game that I felt like we needed to play better to have a chance to win these games now, and I thought we did.

"Obviously, turnovers killed us."

Here are Auburn Undercover's takeaways from the first contest of a two-game Pac-12 road swing.

Late dramatics in L.A.

Boogie Ellis went 1-for-2 at the line with USC leading 72-69, keeping Auburn's chances alive. K.D. Johnson was intentionally fouled as to avoid a tying 3-point attempt.

After Johnson hit the first, Pearl called timeout to discuss whether the Tigers wanted to miss the second. Johnson made it, and the game was extended with yet another foul, though Johnson's body language seemed to indicate he intended to miss the shot.

Ellis made both shots on the other end, and Johnson barely missed a halfcourt heave to cement the loss.

Not only was Johnson supposed to miss, but Chris Moore was supposed to miss his second foul shot on the previous possession.

"We were trying to get a rebound and a tap," Pearl said. "I thought the kids, again, really really competed. We pressured them, we turned them over, we gave ourselves a chance. I didn't have any timeouts, which very rarely happens. On that last possession there (the halfcourt shot) — again, we had different people in the wrong places — Zep (Jasper) kind of crossed in front of him, and K.D. didn't get as clean a look as he might have gotten."

Tigers' turnover troubles, foul discrepancy

The Tigers committed a season-high 23 turnovers and were met with a loose whistle in the second half, forcing an already strong defensive effort to work even harder down the stretch.

Auburn had eight turnovers in the first half, though it didn't have a single one while it was grabbing the lead during a late first-half run.

Things didn't get any better after the break, either. Auburn's 13th turnover of the second half alone pushed the Tigers to a new season-high, as USC was being granted free possession after free possession to erase what was as large as a 6-point Auburn lead in the second half. After four Auburn turnovers in less than two minutes, USC went up 56-51 at the under-8 timeout.

"We've got to value the ball; we've got to take care of the ball at the end of the day," point guard Tre Donaldson said. "It's no secret."

Auburn also entered the double bonus with less than 9 minutes to go in the game. The Tigers were hit with six fouls less than five minutes after halftime, and were overall dealt 19 foul calls in the second half.

A fourth foul on Johni Broome on an over-the-back call sent Ellis to the line for two shots with 2:28 left, and he hit both to create a 67-61 late deficit for Auburn.

"The key is to not get yourself in that kind of foul trouble," Pearl said. "Fouls are errors and mistakes. We fouled them; we put ourselves in that situation."

USC scored an even 23 points off Auburn's 23 turnovers, and the Tigers were called for 10 more fouls (25-15) in the game.

"We had to change the way we played defense," Broome said. "That wasn't good on our end. They were in the bonus with 15 minutes left. That takes the fun out of the game. ... We had seven offensive fouls. Again, you're trying to win the game."

A contested, fadeaway triple by Allen Flanigan seemed to keep it a one-possession game, 67-64 with less than two minutes remaining, with Auburn in desperate need of a stop or a foul-free possession. But review ruled Flanigan had a foot on the line, complicating matters for the Tigers down the stretch.

Auburn got a stop on a driving layup, but Flanigan was hit with a charge on the other end. Ellis nailed a floater over Broome to put the game out seemingly of reach, 69-63 with less than a minute remaining.

Johnson, who went 0-for-5 from the floor, led Auburn with six turnovers. Five other players had at least two.

"The real shift in the second half was, I think, when USC was pressing us," Pearl said. "We turned the ball over a couple of times attacking pressure. Usually, that makes us better. Disappointed that we didn't do a better job there."

Auburn's precarious point-guard situation

Wendell Green Jr. still started after he turned his ankle in Auburn's win over Georgia State last Wednesday, but that didn't mean Auburn had a simple point-guard situation Sunday.

The junior played only 12 minutes, giving way to the true freshman, Donaldson, to occupy most of the action at the point — until foul trouble down the stretch.

Donaldson snatched back-to-back steals, both resulting in buckets from himself and Broome, to kick off an important run for the Tigers before halftime. The freshman then buried a 3-pointer to tie the game at 35-35 with two minutes to go until halftime.

Johnson went 2-for-2 at the charity stripe, Dylan Cardwell converted a put-back look at the basket, and Auburn took its largest lead of the game to that point into the locker room, 39-35, after a 14-2 run. Of the Tigers' eight first-half turnovers, none came during that run in the final five minutes of the half.

Donaldson got hit with his fourth foul on a push-off, though, with 14:42 left in the game, while Green Jr. was getting his ankle looked at on the bench. Jasper, Auburn's starting point guard last year, ran the offense for just under four minutes before true freshman Chance Westry checked in at the 1. Green Jr. did not return to the game. Jasper had two 3-pointers in the second half to keep Auburn in it.

"I think having a healthy Wendell would've allowed us to attack pressure and, hopefully, hurt pressure," Pearl said. "Look, no excuses. But, obviously, it hurt us."

Donaldson came back in late, playing with four fouls, and made 2-of-3 shots at the foul line before recovering his own miss with an offensive rebound and a chance for a putback to bring Auburn within a possession. But the freshman was blocked under the hoop by USC's Tre White.

Broome cleans up early

Looking to avoid reliance on its last-in-the-SEC outside shooting, Auburn looked to its efficient big man for scoring early on.

With 16 points, Broome got into double figures for the fifth straight game and the seventh time in his past eight outings.

During Auburn's 14-2 run before halftime, Broome got two offensive rebounds in one possession, then cashed in his first 3-pointer of the season for 11 points in the first half, his most in an opening half all year.

The Morehead State transfer had five points and five boards in the second half before fouling out with under a minute to play.

Broome's team-high eight boards helped Auburn finish plus-13 on the glass (32-19), but like several other facets of the game, the giveaways were too much to overcome. It becomes only the second time in the Pearl era that Auburn was plus-10 or better than the opponent in rebound but still lost; last year's overtime loss at Arkansas was the first.

"It's a stepping stone," Broome said of Auburn's rebounding. "We've been emphasizing that the whole year. We know we can do it. We've just got to be consistent with it."

Another high-scoring guard

For the second time in the past three games, Auburn was burned by a prolific scoring guard on the other side.

Ellis poured in a career-high 28 points, with an even 14 points in each half. The Trojans grabbed their largest lead of the game to that point, 33-25, after an Ellis basket put USC on a 13-4 run in the first half, and the Trojans were shooting 60% from the floor.

Auburn's big run at the end of the first half transitioned into a staunch defensive stretch, though, as USC was held without a made basket for 8:17 of game time.

Turnovers hindered Auburn's chances of creating a larger lead during USC's drought, though, and all it took was back-to-back baskets — a 3-pointer and a breakaway dunk — for USC to break the dry spell and retake the lead early in the second half.

Ellis accounted for 7 of USC's final 9 points in the game.

"I feel like they need him to score to win," Pearl said. "He did a really good job. You've got to guard him. I thought we did a great job on (Drew) Peterson and the rest of them. But, obviously, Boogie was enormously the difference."

His big night comes two games after Memphis point guard Kendric Davis hung 27 on Auburn in the Tigers' first loss of the season.

"Who did Boogie score on at the end of the day?" Pearl said. "When we find that matchup, is there any consistency there? Who got scored on in our one-on-one closeouts? That was a bit of the difference."