Defense driving Auburn's hot start

AUBURN | No. 19 Auburn is doing a lot of things well to begin this season and it starts with its defense. The Tigers have held four of their five opponents to 70 points or less including Monday night’s 91-62 blowout win over Colgate.

“We played great defense, suffocating defense to hold that team to 29 percent shooting and 1 for 11 from three,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl told the Auburn Network.

“When we get after people, we’re effective. In the second half playing on a lead when we didn’t get after them, we weren’t very effective. We can’t beat people that way. Hopefully we learn from it.”

Colgate, which returned all five starters from last year’s Patriot League champions and NCAA Tournament team, shot just 29 percent from the floor in the first half before bouncing back to shoot 50 percent after the break.

The Tigers scored 14 points off 11 Colgate turnovers.

“We emphasized defense straight off the rip,” said Austin Wiley, who finished with 13 points, 10 rebounds and one blocked shot. “We worked hard in practice these last couple of days. We knew they ran a lot of good stuff so we just had to lock in on that, and we did a good job.”

Auburn had nine blocks against the Raiders including three by Anfernee McLemore, who is second in the SEC with 10. The Tigers have 32 blocked shots this season, the most in the league.

Auburn, which improved to 5-0, will have a week off before playing New Mexico in the semifinals of the Legends Classic in Brooklyn, N.Y., Nov. 25 at 8:30 p.m. CT on ESPNews. Richmond and Wisconsin will play the other semifinal with the championship and consolation games the following day.