AUBURN | Jaylin Williams knows how to celebrate an anniversary.
The fifth-year senior nailed a 3-pointer with 52 seconds left to secure his 100th career win as No. 16 Auburn held on for a 66-55 victory over Texas A&M Tuesday night at Neville Arena.
"I feel like that’s one of the biggest shots of my career, for sure," said Williams. "Texas A&M had beat me up pretty well the last few years so it was good to make that shot. I had confidence in that one and it went in."
With the Tigers leading by four points, Williams got the ball just left of the top of the key and nailed a 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down.
Auburn made its final four free throws to close out the game and improve to 13-2 overall and 2-0 in the SEC.
Williams finished with 22 points, eight rebounds and three assists. He shot 8 of 10 from the floor and 1 of 2 from the 3-point line.
AU’s suffocating defense held TAMU without a field goal for the final 9:15 of the game. The Aggies also had 19 turnovers including 11 in the second half.
TAMU's leading scorer Wade Taylor was held to eight points on 2 of 16 shooting.
"We knew those guys were very physical and strong," said Williams. "So we just tried to do better in the second half just hitting them, getting them out of the way and giving them a little nudge to affect their timing on layups and put backs."
Auburn led 30-22 at the break, holding TAMU without a field goal over the final 4:16. But the Aggies put together a 6-0 win with 11:31 left to take a 44-42 lead as AU committed seven turnovers over the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Williams ended the run with one of his four dunks on the night and AU took back control of the game with an 8-0 run to go up 54-48 with 5:43 left.
"I do think they showed some poise," said AU coach Bruce Pearl. "We took a great punch in the mouth from Texas A&M in the second half when they came back, got a lead. We just didn't panic.
"We talked about, in that last timeout, at that point I think we were up two with four or so minutes to go. I said, 'Man. We're in good shape. This is a really good team. We haven't played great offensively, and we're in position to be in position.' I just tried to give those guys some confidence."
Johni Broome had nine of his 10 points in the final 8:56 of the second half. He was just 1 of 4 from the floor but made 8 of 10 free throws and added seven rebounds and four blocked shots.
K.D. Johnson added 14 points off the bench
TAMU hung in the game by making 14 of 15 free throws in the second half. AU nearly matched them making 16 of 19. TAMU won the rebounding battle 44-34 but AU out-scored TAMU 26-6 off the bench and had 18 assists led by Tre Donaldson’s six.
AU shot 39.2 percent from the floor and held TAMU to 29.0.
"I thought our guards did a tremendous job defensively, and if we can continue to guard and get a little bit of offense from our defense, that's going to be the key, consistently, to winning each night," said Pearl.
Auburn returns to action Saturday against LSU at Neville Arena. Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
