Auburn Basketball Wins Sixth Straight

[AUSportTalk 4]

AUBURN----DeWayne Reed scored 20 points and Korvotney Barber

recorded his third double-double in four games with 10 points and a

career-high tying 16 rebounds to lead Auburn to its sixth straight

victory in a 77-65 win over Southeastern Louisiana in

Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum Wednesday.

The six straight wins are the most in the Coach Jeff Lebo era.

    Trailing 23-11 with nine minutes to play in the first half,

Auburn (9-4) went on a 24-4 run over the next four-plus minutes to take

a 35-27 lead with 4:36 left before settling for a 39-34 halftime lead.

    *Korvotney Barber was terrific with 16 rebounds and 10

points,* Lebo said. *He was very good defensively, and he did an

excellent job on Patrick Sullivan, who is long and athletic.

*I thought Quantez Robertson*s and DeWayne Reed*s defense on

Kevyn Green, especially down the stretch when they needed buckets, was

terrific. We kept them to a fairly low percentage there. We shot the

ball poorly tonight, and we won with our defense. *

    Trailing 43-37, Southeastern Louisiana (6-6) scored nine

straight points in three possessions on two 3-pointers by Chris Cyprian

and another trey by Kevyn Green over a 41 second span to take a 46-43

lead with 17:11 to play in the game.

    Lucas Hargrove quickly tied the game on a 3-pointer and Reed

gave the Tigers the lead for good on a layup with 16:33 remaining.

Barber picked up his fourth foul and went out of the game with the

Tigers leading 59-56 with 8:06 to play, but Auburn held the Lions at bay

with a 7-2 run over the next four minutes.  Auburn used a 6-0 run to

take a 68-58 lead with 3:44 left and coasted in from there.

    Southeastern Louisiana came into the game averaging 79.8 points

per game and Auburn*s defense forced 22 turnovers and limited the

Lions to 41 percent shooting from the field. In the last six games,

Auburn has allowed only 53.3 points per game.

    With Auburn shooting only 22-of-56 (.393) from the field and

Southeastern Louisiana only 23-of-56 (.411), the difference in the game

came at the foul line where the Tigers made 27-of-39 (.692) free throws

compared to the Lions* woeful 11-of-26 (.423). Southeastern came into

the game shooting 67.2 percent from the foul line and Auburn only 58.3

percent.

    The Tigers outscored the Lions 27-14 in points off turnovers,

30-20 in points in the paint and 19-12 in second chance points. From

3-point range, Auburn went 6-of-17 (.353) and Southeastern Louisiana was

8-of-21 (.381).

    Lucas Hargrove had 13 points and six rebounds for Auburn while

Tay Waller had 12 points, going a perfect 9-of-9 from the foul line.

Robertson scored nine points and went 1-of-2 from 3-point range after

going 2-of-25 from behind the arc in his last eight games.

    Green led Southeastern Louisiana with 17 points on 6-of-15

shooting from the field and 3-of-10 shooting from 3-point range. Chris

Cyprian had 12 points and seven rebounds and Robert Tibbs added 10

points off the bench.

      Auburn returns to action as it closes out pre-conference play

against Tulane (6-6) Saturday at 5 pm Central in Beard-Eaves-Memorial

Coliseum in the Tigers* third game in six days. The Tigers open SEC

play on the road at South Carolina on Jan. 10.

[Jackson-Sullivan 0]

That was a solid team they played and they went out and took care of business.  Good stuff!  They are getting better and better with every game.