SAINT LOUIS, Mo. – With 10 seconds left and the game tied, K.D. Johnson banked home a tough shot falling away that proved to be the game-winner, lifting No. 13 Auburn to a 74-70 road victory at Saint Louis on Saturday night.
The Tigers erased a 13-point deficit in the second half and outscored Saint Louis 27-10 over the final eight minutes.
"Down 13 on the road under 10 (minutes), that's tough," Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. "We didn't panic. Great road win. Best one of the year so far."
Johnson tallied 11 points and was one of four Auburn players to score in double figures.
Walker Kessler led the Tigers with 19 points, nine rebounds and four blocks. The sophomore took over at one point during Auburn's second half run with three dunks and a block in a span of just over two minutes to cut the lead to four.
Two of Kessler's dunks were on lobs from Wendell Green Jr. who dished out a team-high eight assists, including five in the final eight minutes.
"Wen is such a good facilitator," Kessler said. "Being able to dish the ball out to Jabari, Lior, me, and finish his own lay-up. He's just such a good facilitator."
"Wendell Green had a calmness to him that I'm not going to forget," Pearl said. "He was poised. We had some guys that looked a little panicked. Saint Louis made a run, elevated play, we were down. Uh oh. Not Wendell. He made plays and was productive."
Green poured in 15 points as well, turning in his third straight game in double figures, but it was his play-making down the stretch that made the difference.
With 2:14 remaining, Green found Lior Berman for a corner 3 to give Auburn a 67-66 lead – its first lead since the 13:30 mark in the second half. After a Saint Louis free throw, freshman Jabari Smith caught a pass from Green and buried a 3-pointer from the other corner to put the Tigers up 70-67.
The Bilikens answered with a 3 on the other end to tie the game, setting up the heroics from K.D. Johnson in the final 30 seconds.
Smith made another corner 3 earlier in the second half to start Auburn's rally and finished with 13 points on 5 of 11 shooting. The star freshman has now scored in double figures in eight consecutive games.
"Jabari is not afraid," Pearl said. "He's a tremendous competitor and if he's open, he's going to make it. We finally got a couple open looks, and he made those shots."
After a slow start in the first half, it was a 3-pointer from Smith that ignited a 9-1 run for Auburn and gave the Tigers their first lead. They stayed hot, shooting 47 percent from the field (15 of 32) in the first 20 minutes and took a 35-27 advantage into halftime.
Saturday marked only the fourth game this season decided by single digits.
"This will help us tremendously," Kessler said. "Just being down in that situation with the crowd against us, I think it's going to be extremely important in how we handle adversity moving forward."
Auburn (10-1) will return home Wednesday to host Murray State in the final non-conference game before SEC play begins. The game will tip off at 5 p.m. CT from Auburn Arena.
