'A great, great win': second-half surge helps No. 17 Auburn beat Georgia, 79-65

'A great, great win': second-half surge helps No. 17 Auburn beat Georgia, 79-65'A great, great win': second-half surge helps No. 17 Auburn beat Georgia, 79-65

Jan. 20, 2018

By Jeff Shearer
AuburnTigers.com

AUBURN, Ala. - Another second-half surge. Another SEC win.

Trailing by 14 at the half, No. 17 Auburn came out smoking in the second half on its way to a 79-65 win over Georgia Saturday, improving to 5-1 in the SEC.

"That was as pretty of a 20 minutes of basketball as I've seen," Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. "Really proud of the chemistry of the team. Not everybody had it tonight, but we had enough to get a great, great win."

Bryce Brown scored 25 of his 28 points in the second half, helping Auburn outscore UGA 53-25 in the final 20 minutes.

"One reason is experience. Another reason is we're just staying together, fighting through adversity," said Brown, who made 4-of-5 3-pointers in the second half. "If we continue to fight through adversity and stay together, we can overcome anything."

Auburn overcame a double-digit deficit to win for the fifth time this season, the fourth in SEC play. The Tigers also beat Ole Miss after trailing by 10, Mississippi State after being down by 13 and Tennessee after a 14-point deficit.

"They didn't panic. They weren't at each other. They stepped up physically," Pearl said. "This team has character. You can't sit back and wait for teams to fail. You've got to force the issue."

Mustapha Heron scored all 14 of his points in the second half, Jared Harper scored 13 and Anfernee McLemore added 10.

Heron's baseline slam and free throw gave Auburn the lead with 13:45 left, electrifying the sellout Auburn Arena crowd.

"I didn't see that coming," Brown said. "That was amazing."

After shooting 31 percent in the first half, Heron's 3-pointer to start the second half set the stage for the comeback.

"[Coach Pearl] said he was going to come to me, so I had to knock it down," Heron said. "We trust each other. We trust BP's process, we try to play for each other, and having fun makes a huge difference."

Brown's 3 with the shot clock expiring trimmed the deficit to a single digit. Harper hit a 3-pointer, then assisted on Brown's 3, pulling Auburn within 3 points less than five minutes into the second half.

Another Brown 3, part of a 25-2 run, put the Tigers up by 10. An alley-oop from Harper to Heron extended the lead to 14. Harper had six assists and only two turnovers.

Applying full-court pressure, Auburn held Georgia without a second half field goal until the 6:41 mark - the Bulldogs missed their first 14 shots - allowing the Tigers to turn a 14-point deficit into a 14-point lead.

After Georgia pulled within 8, Brown's steal, layup and free throw put Auburn ahead 64-53 with 4:51 remaining.

The Bulldogs trimmed the Tigers' lead to 5 with 3:45 remaining, but Malik Dunbar regained the momentum with a 3-point play, helping Auburn improve to 10-0 at home this season.

McLemore led the Tigers in the first half with 10 points and five rebounds, including a pair of 3-pointers.

Auburn plays at Missouri Wednesday at 8 p.m. on SECN.

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @jeff_shearer