AUBURN | There was no question who the best player on the floor was Friday night.
In just his second-career game, Jabari Smith notched his first-career double-double to lead Auburn to a 93-65 win over Louisiana-Monroe at Auburn Arena.
“You can flat-out see what people are talking about during periods of that game when he just, offensively, took over,” said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl. “He’s a great jump shooter and it was good to see him get downhill. It was really good to see him get to the foul line eight times and score through contact.”
Smith, a true freshman who was ranked the No. 6 player in his class by Rivals, had 23 points on 7 of 12 shooting including 3 of 5 from 3-point range, and 10 rebounds.
He added two assists, two blocks, four steals, four turnovers and made 6 of 8 free throws.
"I feel like Coach instills that confidence in you. He lets you play freely," said Smith. "Honestly, I've put that confidence in me. I put in the work over the years with my teammates, my trainers, my dad. Just me shooting shots that I've worked on and just playing out of the offense.
"BP is going to let you be yourself, let you shoot. Whatever you think your shot is, he's going to let you know if he don't think it's his shot."
Twelve of Smith’s 23 points came in a decisive second half in which the Tigers erased a 39-37 deficit, out-scoring ULM by 30 points.
He had the highlight play of the game when he grabbed a rebound off a Walker Kessler block, used a behind-the-back dribble at midcoast to elude a defender and then dribbled past a couple of more for a layup.
“Man, there’s a word we’ve got, we call it piped up,” said Chris Moore. “It’s something that us kids use nowadays. When we see highlight plays like that, it just brings electricity and that energy we need on the bench. It just gets us more physical.”
Auburn returns to action next Friday at USF. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT.
