It was never going to be easy against No. 1 Gonzaga, and the Tigers fought, but ultimately fell 90-67 to the Bulldogs.

One of the lone positives of the game came from the play of sophomore Allen Flanigan.

Flanigan came into the season as the only player on the roster to start a game last season, but he struggled mightily on offense last year.

Against Gonzaga, Flanigan had a career-high 20 points along with five rebounds and an assist.

"I kind of just played to my strengths," Flanigan said. "They tried to shade my left hand and it gave me room to shoot the ball. Just got to take shots."

He shot 7-of-11 from the field and 4-of-7 from beyond-the-arc. During the 2019 season, he shot 39.4% from the field and just a mere 14.3% from deep.

"Yes sir, I feel like I've taken some steps forward," Flanigan said. "I worked a lot on just catch-and-shoot, making shots and being able to play off the dribble and getting my guys shots."

Turnovers were again an early issue for Auburn, as the Tigers had five turnovers in the first five minutes.

The turnovers continued to hurt the Tigers with 17 turnovers leading to 22 Bulldogs points.

Another big issue for Auburn came in the post, as the Bulldogs took advantage of that down low, outsourcing Auburn 52-16 in the paint.

"That was huge," head coach Bruce Pearl said. "Very little ball pressure. Obviously, they got great looks and executed. We weren't very disruptive and just a ton of breakdowns."

The pair of young Auburn centers, Stretch Akingbola and Dylan Cardwell, were forced into a tough matchup with Drew Timme, who led Gonzaga in scoring with 28 points.

After his double-double against St. Joe’s, Jaylin Williams found himself in foul trouble early on for Auburn and never really found a way to get going. He finished without a point and just two rebounds.

Fellow forward JT Thor also ran into early foul trouble and Pearl and the Tigers were forced to expand their rotation, with Javon Franklin receiving some playing time.

"Big foul trouble for us really messed up our rotation early," Pearl said. "That said, even though we had some strange lineups out there in the first half, the bench actually outplayed the starters in some ways so our depth still is our strength."

While Auburn stuck around in the first half, they went into halftime trailing by 14. The Bulldogs came storming out of the gate and scored 7-straight points out of the break to force a quick Auburn timeout.

Flanigan did his best to keep Auburn in the game, scoring the Tigers’ first 10 points of the second half, but the Bulldogs continued to build their lead as the young Auburn team continued to slip.

Auburn leaves Fort Myers, but will stick around in Florida for a game at UCF on Monday at 6 p.m. CST.

STATS:

Allen Flanigan: 20 points, 5 rebounds, 1 assist (29 Minutes)

JT Thor: 11 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists (16 Minutes)

Jamal Johnson: 11 points, 2 rebounds, 1 assist (21 Minutes)

Justin Powell: 7 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists (22 Minutes)

Devan Cambridge: 6 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist (21 Minutes)

Tyrell Jones: 5 points, 2 assists (18 Minutes)

Stretch Akingbola: 4 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block (18 Minutes)

Javon Franklin: 2 points, 1 rebound (8 Minutes)

Chris Moore: 1 point, 4 rebounds (13 Minutes)

Jaylin Williams: 0 points, 2 rebounds (20 Minutes)

Dylan Cardwell: 0 points, 4 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks (13 Minutes)