AUBURN | Trailing at halftime, Auburn needed a second-half spark. Allen Flanigan delivered.

The sophomore scored 15 of his 18 points after the break to lead the Tigers to an 80-63 win over Texas Southern Tuesday night at Auburn Arena.

"Well, he's playing big boy basketball," Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. "You know, he's a big boy. And he's able to go downhill and just overpower you. But he's under control. And obviously, he's worked really hard at his jumpshot. And Al can continue to playmaker."

Flanigan engineered an 18-2 run drawing fouls on two drives to the basket and completing 3-point plays, and finishing it off with step-back 3-pointer to put the Tigers up 61-46 with 11:44 left.

Flanigan added three rebounds and two steals working at both the wing and point guard. He only played six minutes in the first half after getting two early fouls.

"It was very frustrating, picking up two fouls early and having to sit," said Flanigan. "But I had a lot of enthusiasm with my guys, just talking to them and keeping them motivated. In the second half, I told him in the locker room that I had them. I picked it up in the second half."

Justin Powell added 15 points, seven rebounds and six assists while Jaylin Williams had 15 points, six rebounds, two steals and two blocked shots. Pearl praised the improvement of Flanigan, Powell and Williams before the TSU game and the trio delivered.

Freshmen bigs JT Thor and Dylan Cardwell also had strong games. Thor finished with seven points, seven rebounds, three steals and two blocks while Cardwell had three points, seven rebounds and one block.

The Tigers out-scored TSU 41-23 in the second half.

"The offense in the second half is in front of my bench, and I thought our guys did a good job," Pearl said. "Obviously led by Allen. JP had some really good finishes. I thought Jaylin Williams had some nice drives. JT got to the rim a couple times. And, you know, so when the three ball wasn't falling as well for us tonight, we did a really good job of attacking a little bit better off the bounce.

"We still need to do a better job with our post up game. We don't have one. And we got to get one to be able to complement everything else we are doing."

Auburn trailed 40-39 at halftime as TSU shot 58% from the floor and made 4 of 7 3-pointers. AU was just 3 of 14 from beyond the arc in the first half.

The Tigers finished just 4 of 23 from 3-point range, but out-rebounded TSU 37-28 including 15 offensive boards, and scored 21 points off 18 turnovers.

Auburn, which improves to 4-2 on the season, hosts Troy Saturday at 1 p.m. CT.