Nov. 30, 2010
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AUBURN -- Andre Malone scored a game-high 17 points and Rob Chubb added 12 to lead Auburn to a 78-50 win over Georgia Southwestern in Auburn Arena on Tuesday. The Tigers shot a season-high 51.7 percent from the field and forced a season-high 23 turnovers.
Leading 44-38, Auburn (2-4) scored 11 straight points to break the game open at 55-38 with 9:53 remaining. The Tigers continued to grow its lead to 67-47 with four minutes left and then to its largest lead of the game of 28 points on an Allen Payne dunk just before the buzzer.
"It is like I keep telling the crowd, don't cheer when we hit a three," said Auburn head coach Tony Barbee. "Don't cheer when we dunk the ball. Sit on your hands. I want you going crazy when somebody dives like we just won the World Series. Cheer when we dive. Cheer when we take charges. Go crazy then because that is the positive feedback I want these guys getting so they understand that good offense, good defense that is all great and fine.
"It is the extra effort, the all out everything you have every second you are on the floor that matters. You have to compete every possession. Every possession matters when our margin of error is small. I thought Rob set the tone tonight."
Auburn opened the game with a 13-1 run featuring a new starting lineup that included freshman Josh Langford, who scored a season-high nine points, Chubb and junior Tony Neysmith, who scored a career-high eight points in his first career start at Auburn.
Div. II Georgia Southwestern (3-2) answered with 12 straight points to tie it, and the Hurricanes played the Tigers tough throughout the first half. Auburn answered with a 12-2 run to lead 25-15 with 4:41 left in the opening period, but Georgia Southwestern scored nine consecutive points to close to within 27-24 before the Tigers went into the locker room ahead 32-26.
"It was just great that we all came out, and we are starting to come together as a team," said Chubb. "We had really no chemistry coming together this year. We had to kind of force it and jumpstart it because we haven't had anybody that has had any major playing time.
"So far, we are starting to come together and it is going to get better with time. Right now, the win is just amping everybody up, and that is what we have been searching for, just something to lift our spirits and get us on the high horse."
Georgia Southwestern stayed close to Auburn by going 5-of-12 from 3-point range in the first half. The Tigers held the Hurricanes to 32.7 percent shooting from the field and 8-of-21 from 3-point range, including 3-of-9 in the second half. Auburn shot 77.8 percent (14-of-18) from the foul line.
Adrian Forbes came off the bench to score eight points in 12 minutes while Kenny Gabriel and Payne scored six each. Trayce Macon led Georgia Southwestern with 15 points and 10 rebounds while Phillip Brown added 14 points.
Auburn returns to action as it plays its final game of a seven-game opening homestand against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Sunday at 2 pm Central in Auburn Arena. The Tigers will then play Rutgers in the DirecTV SEC-Big East Invitational in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Dec. 11 followed by a game at South Florida on Dec. 15.