Feb. 15, 2018
By Greg Ostendorf
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. ÃÆ'Æ'¢ÃƒÆ'¢'¬" There was no storming the court after Wednesday's victory over Kentucky. There was no grandiose speech from head coach Bruce Pearl in the locker room after the game. It was business as usual because No. 10 Auburn was the better team.
If anything, the Tigers didn't even play their best.
"We didn't play great did we?," Pearl asked his players during his post-game speech. "But we played pretty hard, and we played tough enough."
That's been this team's M.O. all season. They play hard. They make shots. And they just find a way to win. With five conference games remaining, Auburn (23-3, 11-2) has a two-game lead in the SEC standings, and they're flirting with the possibility of getting a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Beating Kentucky was just another example of what defines this group.
"Our conditioning, our toughness, our resilience, our grit, it's why we won the game," Pearl told the media after the game.
Here are three takeaways from Wednesday's victory.
1. Winning time
There was a point midway through the second half when it seemed like Kentucky could score every time down the court. So in Auburn's huddle at the under-eight-minute media timeout, the players said, "We need to get a stop right now." One stop led to another, and over the next four minutes, the Tigers went on a 15-4 run to go up seven.
The noise level rose with every made shot, and it hit a fever pitch when Jared Harper tossed an alley-oop to Anfernee McLemore that he threw down with one hand.
But ultimately, it was the work done by McLemore and fellow frontcourt players Desean Murray and Mustapha Heron on the defensive end and on the glass in the final eight minutes of the game that swayed the outcome in Auburn's favor.
"In the last five or six minutes, the way they defended and rebounded won the game for us," Pearl said. "They all played huge. Several of those balls that Kentucky put up there, including some inside shots, could've gone in. They didn't. And we managed to get enough rebounds to be able to not allow them to simply just play volleyball in the paint.
"I've never seen a frontline at 6-3, 6-5, 6-7 play as big as those guys played in the last six minutes of the game."
McLemore and Murray finished with 11 rebounds apiece, and Heron pulled down all four of his rebounds in those final eight minutes with the game on the line.
2. Playing through pain
When Brown woke up Wednesday morning, he didn't think he was going to play. The junior guard suffered a shoulder strain against Texas A&M, and a week later, coming off his first practice with contact, it was still really stiff. But when Auburn got to its shoot-around, the shoulder was feeling good enough that he decided to play.
Pearl and his teammates are glad he did.
Though Brown got off to a slow start, missing his four shots, he finally drained his first three-point shot with eight minutes left in the first half, and it was as if that's all he needed. The team's leading scorer coming in went 6 of 9 from the field and 4 of 5 from beyond the arc from that point on and finished with a team-high 18 points.
"I don't think we win tonight without him," Pearl said after the game.
"He's our brother and he was still kind of hurting," added McLemore. "So if he's willing to put himself on the line for us, in turn, we're going to put ourselves on the line for him. We knew we may have had a chance to play without him, so we were kind of mentally preparing for that. When he did finally give it a go, it was a big support for us."
3. 'A unique player'
As good as Brown was, it's hard to find a player who made more of an impact against Kentucky than McLemore. The 6-foot-7 center provided energy and toughness, and when Auburn needed to make a play, he was the one to make it time and time again.
In the first half with the entire team struggling from the floor, McLemore knocked down a pair of three-point shots that helped the Tigers get going. In the second half, when he wasn't throwing down dunks and alley-oops, he was blocking shots or coming up with steals. The former three-star recruit finished with 13 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and two blocks.
"Anfernee is just unique," Pearl said. "He is a unique player. How many 1600 SAT, 4.0's can shoot the 3-ball and block shots like that? He is just a unique guy."
"That's just hard to guard," added Brown. "When you have a guy as athletic as Anfernee, you try to keep him from scoring around the rim. But he can step out and knock down that shot. We're all really impressed with him. He worked really hard over the offseason on that jump shot, and it's finally paying off. He's a hard worker, and I expect nothing less than what he's doing."
Greg Ostendorf is a Senior Writer for AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @greg_ostendorf