AUBURN | Jared Harper finished off most of Auburn’s game last season. Bryce Brown and Chuma Okeke closed out a few of their own too.

But with those three off to play professionally, the Tigers were in need of some closers for this year’s team. They certainly found one Friday night in Annapolis, Md.

Anfernee McLemore scored five of AU’s final nine points in a 76-66 win over Davidson in the Veterans Classic at Alumni Hall.

“Offensively, defensively, athletically at the rim, he saved his best for last. He’s such a tough matchup because he can do things inside and out. He was fearless,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said.

It was much more than just scoring that McLemore provided down the stretch. He was substituted in at the 3:44 mark shortly after Davidson made a jump shot to cut AU’s lead to 66-61.

The senior quickly drew a foul and made a free throw and got a block on the other end that led to a layup by J’Von McCormick, who returned the favor with an alley-oop pass to McLemore for a dunk on the next possession.

After a 3-pointer and layup by Davidson cut the lead back to 72-66, McLemore followed with a layup of his own with 39 seconds left.

“At that point in the game it was a pretty close game and I knew I had to come in and make some plays and bring some energy and try to change the flow of momentum in the game because Davidson kept chipping away at the lead,” McLemore told the Auburn Network. “Once I got the block, it kind of pumped our crowd up and it kind of put me in a better head space where the plays just started rolling off after that.”

McLemore finished with 12 points, five rebounds, one steal and three blocks as the Tigers improved to 2-0 on the season. He played 25 minutes off the bench as AU’s sixth man, rotating in for Austin Wiley at the five and Danjel Purifoy at the four.

The win was especially important for McLemore, who comes from a military family.

“It meant a lot to me just coming back here as an adult and experiencing all the things today they go through here at the Academy, all the coordination and things, just to have a great game to honor or veterans. Hey, my mom’s a veteran. It just means a lot to me personally to come out and play hard this afternoon,” McLemore said.

With five seniors and eight newcomers, Auburn is a unique mix of very experienced and very inexperienced players. That puts McLemore and his fellow seniors in important leadership roles.

“I think our senior leadership did a great job keeping all the nerves under control,” McLemore said. “We are a very young team this year so I, think it’s important to have everybody calm, cool and collected, especially with Isaac Okoro on the floor a lot. Just making sure everybody bought in and not panicking under pressure.”

Auburn returns to action at South Alabama Tuesday night at 7 p.m. CT on ESPN+.