BIRMINGHAM, Ala. | A year after Jared Harper set a career-high in the Mike Slive Invitational, his heir apparent at point guard also was pivotal in carrying the Tigers to victory in Birmingham.

Led in large part by senior J’Von McCormick’s career-high 20 points, seven rebounds and six assists, Auburn fended off Saint Louis to remain undefeated on the season with a 67-61 victory inside Legacy Arena.

Earlier this week, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl expressed his displeasure with yet another long layoff period for his team — nine days from its last game.

And despite all the energy in the building going its way prior to tipoff with a glorified home game, the Tigers did in fact come out sluggish. Auburn missed its first five shots and committed two turnovers before the game’s first timeout with Saint Louis leading 8-0.

"We knew coming in that it was going to be — they were going to come out more aggressive, so, we got out to a slow start and we picked it up on defense," McCormick said.

Auburn went on a 28-13 run to end the half from there. It wasn’t successful from outside — with players not named McCormick going 0-for-9 from deep through 20 minutes — and it couldn’t convert consistently when it was rewarded for going inside, either, shooting 4-for-10 from the foul line.

So defense had to be its strength. After the Billikens shot upward of 80% through the first few minutes, the Tigers locked down and brought that down to 33% by halftime and 38% for the game.

"Yeah, defense was a big part of what won the game today," freshman Isaac Okoro said. "You know we started off pretty sluggish in the first half so we went into halftime just talking about playing aggressive on defense and that’s what we did."

Auburn’s shooting never got hot for big stretches — 22-of-62 from the floor — but it seemed every make was off a loose ball, a 50-50 situation or a transition opportunity that allowed the momentum to continue swinging the Tigers' way.

"This whole game was about a bounce here or there," Saint Louis head coach Travis Ford said. "I think they made two 3s off last-second, offensive rebounds, balls rolling out bounds — they throw it back in, catch it and throw it in from 35, 45 feet. That's what this game was about."

The Tigers' free-throw shooting — 13-of-28 for the game — didn’t improve much, either, as the afternoon went along.

"It's not a very good trend, but I think we can turn that around," Pearl said of the free-throw struggles.

McCormick led all scorers with 12 points in the first half, then made his offensive contributions with crisp passing in the second.

"J'Von, rather than just simply defending, he defends, he gets the 50-50 ball and makes the play at both ends of the floor," Pearl said. "A lot of times, players are either afraid to fail or not willing to; they just want to sort of contain you. How about stop you and take it from you. How about that?"

Ford said he made a point to find McCormick after the game to deliver a message.

"[McCormick] was a one-man band there for a while, I thought," Ford said. "He took advantage of some opportunities. Give him credit. I told him after the game that he was the difference in the game, plain and simple, by a wide margin."

When it wasn’t McCormick setting things from the halfcourt or finding open targets on the fast break, Auburn worked to feed the ball to center Austin Wiley after Pearl said last week that the team was doing a “lousy job” of getting opportunities for him on offense.

Wiley got his shots but was far from efficient, missing nine of 11 shots around the rim as well as a missed mid-range jumper. When he was hacked and sent to the line, he made 4 of 8 attempts.

Okoro's 12 points and five rebounds made him the only other Tiger besides McCormick with double-digit scoring.

Auburn returns to action next Thursday against NC State at home.

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