Dec. 5, 2010
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AUBURN -- Auburn used an 11-0 run in the final four minutes of the game to come back and defeat Arkansas-Pine Bluff 76-72 in Auburn Arena on Sunday. Freshman Allen Payne scored a career-high 16 points to lead four Tigers in double figures.
With Arkansas-Pine Bluff holding its largest lead of the game at 72-65 with 4:04 remaining, Rob Chubb scored seven of his 14 points in the decisive 11-0 Auburn run. Chubb, who entered the game shooting 5-of-15 from the foul line, made 5-of-6 foul shots in the stretch and was 6-of-8 for the game.
"It was huge because I had to find a combination that wasn't afraid, and the combination I had on the floor the last six-seven minutes wasn't afraid," said Auburn head coach Tony Barbee of the comeback after being down seven points. "I'm not worried about egos. I really don't care - mad, sad, I really don't care. I'm going to play the guys that will do all the little things necessary to win, and that's the group I had on the floor down the stretch, and it's why we came back in those last four minutes."
Chubb tied it with a pair of free throws at 72 with 59.9 seconds to go, and Arkansas-Pine Bluff turned it over with 43 seconds left. Nearly falling out of bounds, Payne rebounded his missed layup with 12 seconds remaining and threw it to Josh Wallace at the top of the key as Auburn called time out with 9.4 seconds to go.
Tony Neysmith barely avoided a 5 second violation, finding Payne on a backdoor cut on the inbounds pass to the rim as Payne laid in the game-winner with 7.4 seconds on the clock.
"First of all, that dead ball is coming so slow," said Payne. "You think it's never going to get there. It's just a reaction. I'm not really thinking. I'm just reacting to the play. It was close enough to the rim that I could finish off the backboard, so that's what I tried to do."
Auburn (3-4) forced Arkansas-Pine Bluff's 18th turnover of the game, and Chubb sealed it with a pair of free throws with four seconds left.
"It worked out," said Barbee of the Neysmith to Payne game-winner. "What I drew up didn't work, but some of the greatest plays have come from broken plays. We had a broken play, some guys didn't know their job, didn't execute or whatever, and Tony made a play, and Allen made a play. Payne made a heck of a play to read that back door."
The Tigers led 15-8 and as much as 23-15 with 10:30 left in the first half but allowed the Golden Lions to shoot 61.5 percent from the field and 7-of-13 percent (.538) from 3-point range in the opening period. Arkansas-Pine Bluff (0-7) came in averaging 51 points a game and led Auburn at halftime 48-44 as the Tigers shot 57.7 percent from the field and 4-of-9 from 3-point range.
Auburn held Arkansas-Pine Bluff to 47.4 percent shooting for the second half and 2-of-7 from behind the arc.
Freshman Josh Langford scored all 13 of his career-high points in the first half as foul trouble allowed him only 20 minutes of play. Andre Malone added 10 points while Jake Drum was a spark off the bench with 3 points and 4 rebounds in 5 minutes.
Auburn shot 45.5 percent from the floor for the game, 35.3 percent (6-of-17) from behind the arc and 20-of-27 (.741) from the free throw line. The Tigers outrebounded the Golden Lions 33-24 and had 12 turnovers.
Auburn, winners of three of its last four games, travels away from Auburn Arena for the first time as it plays Rutgers in the DirecTV SEC-Big East Invitational in Pittsburgh, Pa., on Saturday at 11:30 am Central on ESPN2 and ESPN 3D followed by a game at South Florida on Dec. 15.