ATLANTA – A preseason tune-up? More like midseason form.
No. 20 Auburn raced to a 25-point halftime lead and cruised to a 100-71 exhibition victory over Memphis Thursday at State Farm Arena.
“Credit to our guys for really locking into the scouting report and executing,” Auburn coach Steven Pearl said. “Our guys had a great response. A hundred points against a really good Memphis team. I thought our guys did a really good job.”
Elyjah Freeman made four of Auburn’s 10 first-half steals, part of 17 Memphis turnovers in the first 20 minutes, helping Auburn amass a 25-0 advantage in points off turnovers. Memphis finished with 23 turnovers.
“We started out in our zone defense and I think it really threw them off guard,” Pearl said. “We were constantly changing defenses from man to zone. There were a lot of possessions were they were running zone offense against our man-to-man because we did such a good job of being in gaps early in the game.”
Keyshawn Hall led Auburn with 20 points. Freshman point guard Kaden Magwood was 4-for-5 from the field and 2-for-2 from 3-point range, scoring 15 points. Filip Jovic and Tahaad Pettiford each added 11 points. Freeman led the Tigers with six rebounds and Pettiford had a game-high five assists.
Eleven Tigers played double-digit minutes. Abul Bashir made 3 of 5 3-pointers and scored nine points, as did freshman forward Sebastian Williams-Adams, who was 3-for-4 from the floor.
Leading 52-27 at the half, Auburn scored the first seven points of the second half in less than a minute on dunks from Filip Jovic and Hall, followed by Hall’s 3-pointer, leading to a Memphis timeout and a 32-point Auburn lead.
“It was about coming out, punching them in the mouth and not relaxing,” Hall said. “We locked in because we didn’t want that sour taste of the Oklahoma State game in our mouth.”
Abdul Bashir ‘s 3-pointer pushed the run to 10-0, giving Auburn a 62-27 lead.
Magwood hit a free throw in the final minute to help Auburn reach the century mark.
The Steven Pearl era officially begins Monday when the Tigers welcome Bethune-Cookman to Neville Arena for Tipoff on The Plains at 7 p.m. CT.
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer