AUBURN, Ala. – For the first 10 minutes of Saturday's game, it might have looked like last year's Auburn team against Iowa State. The Tigers were knocking down 3s left and right, and the home crowd was getting louder and louder every time one went through the net.
"It's hard to stop us when we get that momentum," Auburn senior Danjel Purifoy said. "We had the crowd going, and we feed off the crowd. The place was rocking. We just wanted to feed off that. We started off hot, guarded the ball, shot the ball well, and everything went our way."
When Jamal Johnson knocked down a 3-poiner at the 8:38 mark, he became the sixth different Auburn player to connect from deep in the half. As a team, the Tigers made nine 3s in the first half to build a 42-31 lead. They finished with 10 3s for the game, and with the win, they are now 10-0 on the season when they make double-digit shots from beyond the arc.
Here's a look back at a couple of those 3s that played a pivotal role in Saturday's win.
Short-term memory
All season, the coaches have been pushing Isaac Okoro to be more aggressive offensively. So on one of Auburn's first possessions, the freshman came off a screen and when he got an open look from long range, he didn't hesitate. He fired. The shot rimmed in and out.
"I just missed one," Okoro said. "I knew the shot looked good, but it went in and out. So I knew the next time I got the ball, it was going to go in."
Sure enough, on the very next possession, Okoro got another chance. Samir Doughty drove to the basket and kicked it out to Okoro in the corner. Again, he didn't hesitate. This time, it was nothing but the bottom of the net, and it gave Auburn its first points of the game.
That confidence to shoot after a miss shows much Okoro has evolved as a player.
"That actually is a step in my game right there because usually in high school if I missed one, I'd probably be down and not take another 3 the whole game," he said. "But it just shows that my confidence is boosting by coming down the next play, shooting a 3 and making it."
The shot started a run of four straight Auburn possessions with a 3-pointer.
"It's just hard to beat," Okoro said. "Offensively, we've got so many weapons, so many people that can do different things and that are versatile. We're hard to beat once we're hitting shots."
The spark plug
One of those first four 3-pointers Auburn made Saturday came from Anfernee McLemore. The senior big man, who is the first player off the bench for the Tigers, flashed toward the top of the key. His man was just a split second too slow getting out, and that's all McLemore needed. He seized the opportunity and buried the shot.
It was the first of three long balls McLemore made in the first half alone.
"Coming off the bench, I want to be a spark plug," he said. "I want to provide some energy. "So just being able to come in and knock down some 3s and give the gym some energy was big for us. And as a team, we really got into a rhythm once we started knocking down shots."
"When Anfernee McLemore is making shots, things really open up for us offensively," added Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl.
Later in the first half, McLemore knocked down his second 3-pointer on a pick-and-pop play with point guard J'Von McCormick. McLemore set a screen for McCormick and when his man followed the ball, it left him wide open at the top of the key.
"None of the 3s I made were play calls for me," McLemore said. "When my teammates drove in, I just relocated to the perimeter and got a good shot. I was just in the right place at the right time, and I was able to take advantage of my opportunity."
At 34 percent from beyond the arc, McLemore is the team's second-best 3-point shooter on the season.
Three off a block
Auburn only made one three-pointer in the second half, but it was an important one. And it would've never happened if not for a hustle play from McLemore.
The Tigers went cold early in the second half, going over three minutes without a field goal. Coming out of a media timeout, McLemore tried to end the drought with a 3 from the wing, but he missed it. Iowa State pulled down the rebound, pushed it the other way and looked to have a sure lay-up until McLemore, hustling back down the court, flew in and blocked the shot off the glass.
"I had just missed a 3, so I was making sure that they didn't score a layup off my miss," McLemore said.
After the block, McCormick took it the other way for Auburn and found Purifoy in the right corner for a wide-open 3-pointer. Nothing but net. The whole sequence took less than 20 seconds, but it was a five-point swing and extended the lead to 53-37. More importantly, it got the crowd at Auburn Arena back into it.
"I remember (McLemore) blocking it, getting back, and then they threw it to me," Purifoy said. "That's just me being me. Just taking that shot that I'm supposed to take."
Like McLemore, Purifoy also knocked down a trio of 3-pointers in Saturday's game.
"It seems like the rim gets bigger and bigger every shot that goes down," he said. "So you get more confident, and you just keep taking the shots that the coaches want you to take and that your teammates expect you to take."