Bruce Presser for Bonaventure/game highlights

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auburnwire.usatoday.com

 

Recap: Auburn Basketball cruises to Legends Classic Championship

Brian Hauch

~2 minutes

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The Auburn Tigers have won their first trophy of the season.

Bruce Pearl’s squad improved to 3-1 on the young season Friday Night, defeating the St. Bonaventure Bonnies 77-60 in front of a large crowd at the Barclays Center.

The win secured a “Legends Classic” Championship for Auburn. They won both games by double digits and were clearly the best team in the tournament.

Johni Brrome once again led the Auburn offensive attack, muscling his way to 18 points and 5 rebounds.

As will normally be the case this season. plenty of Tigers stuffed the stat sheet in the win. Aden Holloway, Jaylin Williams, Denver Jones, K.D Johnson, and Dylan Cardwell all contributed 8 points or more and could have done more if not for the blowout nature of the second half.

Auburn’s offense was great, but the real story of their early season continues to be the perimeter defense of Tre Donaldson, Aden Holloway and Denver Jones.

Tiger guards held the opposition to under 15% from the 3-point line for the second night in a row, as the Bonnies shot just 3/24 from deep.

Auburn also out-rebounded, out-assisted, and out-blocked St. Bonaventure. The Orange and Blue also had one less turnover.

St. Bonaventure’s premier player and Atlantic 10 Preseason First-Team guard Daryl Banks III had just 4 points, giving the Bonnies virtually no chance at making a comeback.

Auburn will enjoy this early season championship before they return to action Tuesday at Neville Arena to take on Alabama A&M.

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3 takeaways from Auburn’s 77-60 win against St. Bonaventure

Updated: Nov. 17, 2023, 8:23 p.m.|Published: Nov. 17, 2023, 8:17 p.m.

5–6 minutes

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BROOKLYN, NY - NOVEMBER 17 - Jaylin Williams (2) during the game between the Auburn Tigers and the St. Bonaventure Bonnies at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY on Friday, Nov. 17, 2023. Photo by Steven Leonard/Auburn TigersSteven Leonard/Auburn Tigers

Auburn won the Legend’s Classic on Friday with a 77-60 win over St. Bonvanenture.

Auburn blew out its opponents in each of the two games it played this week, beating Notre Dame on Thursday before St. Bonaventure.

Auburn rides a serious wave of momentum with one more game before a short Thanksgiving break. It is 4-1 overall this season and winners of three straight after letting the opener against Baylor slip away.

Auburn’s offense? Elite

Should it be maintained, Auburn’s offense makes it a serious contender in the SEC this year.

But what makes it so dangerous is that Auburn doesn’t just rely on one thing or one player. Auburn can score from anywhere, and it can do so efficiently and quickly. Take the end of the first half tonight.

Over the final 11 minutes of the first half, Auburn outscored St. Bonaventure 26-11. Eight Auburn players scored in the first half. Auburn made 7-14 3-pointers. It assisted on 15 of 17 made field goals. That came against only five turnovers. Auburn had already been among the top 25 teams in the nation in terms of assists per game.

That stretch put Auburn put by 20 at halftime, a cushion that helped it pull away for good. Auburn shot 9-15 over the final nine minutes of the first half. That’s 60%.

As a team, Auburn is shooting close to 50% as a team this season and more than 40% from deep. The fact that Auburn has that offense in its arsenal, and can unleash it pretty much at any moment is an incredible asset.

St. Bonaventure is a quality opponent, and Auburn blew past it. At least it did in the first half. Auburn’s offense had possibly its worst half of the season in the second half against St. Bonaventure, but even as the gap closed slightly, Auburn had played well enough offensively in the first half that Auburn never seemed in danger of losing the lead.

Auburn’s 3-point defense this week was incredible — albeit unsustainable

Auburn nearly went an entire 40 minutes without allowing a 3-pointer. Notre Dame’s Braeden Shrewsberry made a shot from deep with 1:19 to go in the first half of Auburn’s win Thursday. Notre Dame didn’t make a 3-pointer in the second half. St. Bonaventure then didn’t make a 3-pointer until Moses Flowers made one with 1:57 before halftime.

In the two games, Auburn allowed a combined 5-53 from deep.

Obviously, that’s incredible. And obviously, that’s unsustainable.

But the point here is Auburn is figuring things out on defense. It’s not really that Notre Dame and St. Bonaventure were missing open looks — though both teams did, in fact, miss open — but more that Auburn’s closeouts at the perimeter have been greatly improved.

Even if that type of defense is impossible to keep up, for that to extend against two different teams in two different games means that Auburn maintained its perimeter defense.

And that comes after Baylor blitzed Auburn to make nearly half of its 3s. Southeastern Louisiana made greater than 35%.

Auburn has an identity

Auburn has played its best defense of the season in the two Brooklyn games this week. As a whole, that may still be something Auburn is going to keep building on as it didn’t exactly play two offensive powerhouses this week.

But what is maybe more notable is the offensive identity Auburn is already finding through just four games.

Pearl discussed this after the win against Notre Dame. And that identity appears to be an ability to play team basketball. To be balanced. To be efficient from all parts of the floor.

“Obviously, if you’ve got to guard in the perimeter, it opens up driving lanes,” Pearl said after beating Notre Dame. “It opens up Johni Broom on the inside, Dylan Cardwell. I just think we’ve had great spacing and we’re getting open looks. We’re getting open looks and that’s what you want. Try to get a feel for how other teams are going to guard. It does look like in November this team has got an idea of what we want to try to do offensively.”

As discussed above, Auburn’s offensive numbers this season are among the best in the nation in numerous categories — before considering that Auburn has not played cupcakes to open the season.

To have the same tropes discussed after each game — high assist rate, high shooting percentage, reliable from beyond the arc — is a further sign of the consistency and identity Auburn is finding.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at mcohen@al.com

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247sports.com

 

Tigers start strong defeat St Bonaventure to win Legends Classic

Matthew Wallace

5–7 minutes

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For the second time in program history, Auburn walked away from Brooklyn as the champion of the Legends Classic. The Tigers earned the title of the event by defeating the home-state St. Bonaventure Bonnies 77-60 on Friday night.

"That's a good St. Bonaventure team," said head coach Bruce Pearl. "Everybody knows what a great coach Mark Schmidt is, the job that he does...Overall, good win for us and proud of our kids for making history."

The score was tied at six just over three minutes in. Then, Denver Jones hit a 3-pointer, St. Bonaventure turned it over twice, Johni Broome scored a pair of close-range baskets, and the Tigers led the rest of the way. A pair of Aden Holloway free throws capped off the 9-0 run.

The run was Auburn’s first of three sustained scoring runs in the first half. The Tigers also put up a 13-4 run midway through the period and an 8-0 run to close out the half. 

Against Notre Dame, Auburn held a 15-point lead with 3:51 to go, only to surrender a run and see the lead reduced to six at the half. Against the Bonnies, it was the Tigers who went on the late first-half run. Ahead by 10 with 3:14 to play in the half, Auburn scored 13 of the final 16 points before going to the locker room.

"The last few minutes of the first half was pretty exciting basketball," Pearl said.

The Tigers shot 54.8 percent in the first 20 minutes, going 17-of-31 from the field, with Broome scoring 13 in the frame to lead his team. In the first half, Auburn made 50 percent of its 3-pointers, going 7-of-14 behind the arc.

The second half was not as kind to the Tigers, with the Bonnies outscoring Auburn 32-29, but the Tigers’ strong first half was too much for their opponent to overcome. The Tigers shot just 38.1 percent in the second half, and made just one of 10 3-pointers in the frame, factoring into the team’s failure to reach 80 points for the first time this season. Auburn also hurt itself with eight turnovers in the second half of play.

"We didn't shoot the ball as well in the second half," Pearl said. "That's probably the first half all year we really didn't shoot it well...that may have been a factor in our not continuing to build our lead."

Holloway, who came into the game shooting just over 52 percent from 3-point range, was just 2-for-7 from behind the arc. Jones, however, picked him up, shooing 3-for-3 from 3-point range.

Broome led the Tigers with 18 points, with Jaylin Williams and Jones joining him in double figures. Broome was 7-of-11 from the field and Williams led the Tigers with 10 rebounds, earning a double-double for the first time this season. Though Broome came into the game shooting just over 64 percent from the foul line, he made just four of his 11 free-throw attempts in the game.

As a team, Auburn was 19-of-27 from the foul line. The result was largely skewed due to Broome’s output, however, as four Tigers were perfect on free throws, including a 6-for-6 performance from Dylan Cardwell.

"When Johni had missed some free throws, we played the last four minutes with Dylan Cardwell in there and Dylan made all of his free throws," Pearl said. "Dylan's a career 40 percent free-throw shooter, he went 6-for-6 tonight. I know Dylan's shooting coach is smiling somewhere and look at the work Dylan has done, but he was poised and played great defense down the stretch."

The Tigers were active on the offensive glass, getting 11 offensive rebounds and turning those into 16 second-chance points. Williams had three of Auburn's offensive boards. The Bonnies were equally active on the offensive boards, though they did not take advantage as well as the Tigers, scoring 11 second-chance points from 12 offensive rebounds.

The active Auburn defense factored into the win, affecting the Bonnies, who committed several uncharacteristic miscues. St. Bonaventure came into the game averaging 11 turnovers per game but had 11 turnovers in the first half alone. For the game, the Bonnies had 16 turnovers, resulting in 24 Auburn points.

For the second straight game in Brooklyn, Auburn benefitted from its opponent’s inability to make 3-pointers. One day after Notre Dame finished 2-of-26 from behind the arc, the Bonnies made just three of their 24 3-point attempts. Combined, Auburn's opponents in the Legends Classic were just 5-of-50 from 3-point range.

Auburn, for the first time this season, was able to consistently get stops without fouling in the second half. Auburn’s first three opponents combined for 56 second-half free-throw attempts, but the Bonnies shot just 13 free throws in the entire game, with just ten attempts in the second half.

After scoring a combined 33 points in the two tournament games, Broome was named MVP of the Legends Classic, with Williams also making the all-tournament team.

"Honestly, I didn't know I was going to get MVP," Broome said. "I was focused on my teammates and celebrating a win. I was trying to get hyped."

From 2005 to 2018, Auburn did not win a multi-team tournament event. The Tigers’ victory in the Legends Classic, however, was their third win in such events since 2019, and their second straight. The Tigers won the Legends Classic in 2019 and the Cancun Challenge in 2022.

The Tigers outscored their two Legends Classic opponents by a combined 41 points, beating Notre Dame by 24 and the Bonnies by 17. After three neutral-site contests in four games, Auburn returns home to face Alabama A&M on Tuesday evening.

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si.com

 

Takeaways: Tigers Use Strong First Half to Push Past St Bonaventure in Legends Classic Championship

Lance Dawe

3–4 minutes

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Auburn basketball got off to a hot start once again.

The Auburn Tigers have now won three straight in convincing fashion following their season-opening loss to Baylor.

Tonight, Bruce Pearl and the Tigers were once again victorious, defeating St Bonaventure 77-60 in the Legends Classic championship game.

It was a contest dominated by Auburn for 25 minutes before the Bonnies finally woke up in the second half. It was too little too late as Auburn rode strong performances from Johni Broome, Jaylin Williams and Denver Jones to a win.

Here are four takeaways from the victory.

Johni Broome cleaned house

Everyone be thankful the Tigers were playing St Bonaventure and not the No. 1 seeded Houston Cougars.

Despite an extremely poor performance from the foul line (4-of-11), Broome finished the game with 18 points, and five rebounds on 7-of-11 shooting.

Denver Jones stepped up

Aden Holloway had his first off night in an Auburn uniform, shooting 2-of-10 from the floor - but FIU transfer Denver Jones stepped up in his offensive absence, scoring 12 points and hitting all three of his outside shots. The Tigers are going to need players like Jones to rise to the occasion when the talented freshman guard is in a slump.

Tre Donaldson also went 1-of-2 from beyond the arc.

How will Auburn respond in tougher second halves?

The Tigers shot sub-40% from the floor and just 1-of-10 from deep in the second half. The Bonnies, who also shot poorly in the final 20 minutes, were still able to crawl back into the game and cut the lead to 11 at one point.

Auburn will face much better teams with significantly better three-point shooters. They were able to control the game and maintain their lead in the end... but how will Pearl and the team respond to more serious adversity down the road?

Getting games like this one under the belt should help.

The Legends Classic field simply could not shoot

Outside of Auburn, the three other teams in the Legends Classic field shoot an average of 22.3% from beyond the arc (including tonight's two contests of Oklahoma State/Notre Dame and Auburn/St Bonaventure.

The Bonnies went 3-of-24 against the Tigers tonight. Yikes.

The field could not shoot the rock. Is it Auburn's improved three-point defense after a disappointing performance against Baylor? Or is it because none of the other three teams here can't shoot at all?

What's next?

The Tigers return to Neville Arena next Tuesday, November 21st, to play Alabama A&M. Tipoff time is at 7:00 pm CT and can be seen on ESPN+.

Alabama A&M is currently ranked No. 339 nationally on KenPom.

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