Pearl calling on role players to step up in Okoro's absence

Auburn is receiving consistent production from its senior Big 3. But past Samir Doughty, J'Von McCormick and Austin Wiley, Bruce Pearl is looking for Auburn's role players to step up in a big way.

As starting small forward Isaac Okoro was sidelined with a hamstring injury suffered against Alabama, other faces on the roster were given a shot to raise their game. In an 85-73 loss at Missouri on Saturday, that hope from Pearl never materialized.

Doughty, McCormick and Wiley combined for 59 points, while the remainder of the roster had just 14.

"Obviously, without Isaac, we need more from our bench," Pearl said. "We need other guys to be able to step up, and we didn't get that."

Fellow true freshman Allen Flanigan, a 6-foot-5 wing from Little Rock, Ark., started in Okoro's place. While he didn't hit a field goal, Flanigan scored five points, pulled down six rebounds and had two assists.

He was one of just two Auburn players (Wiley) to post a positive plus/minus with a +5.

"I thought Allen Flanigan played hard and effectively," Pearl said. "He wasn’t able to score (a basket), but he only turned it over one time in 29 minutes."

Pearl is pleading for more out of the remainder of the roster. All of Auburn's bench points came from senior forward Danjel Purifoy. He had seven points in 24 minutes and is only coming off the bench because he's recovering from the flu, which held him out of the LSU game and held him to limited action against Alabama.

Anfernee McLemore started in his place. McLemore has been one of Auburn's most consistently efficient role players this season, but against Mizzou he scored just one basket to four fouls and was 1-of-5 from the floor.

Jamal Johnson, who is Auburn's only true shooting-guard reserve behind Doughty, has been consistent in the worst way as of late. Coming off the bench to be a 3-and-D type player, Johnson has struggled on defense over the past few games, and has 15 combined points on 3-for-17 shooting over the past nine games.

Meanwhile, freshman Devan Cambridge, who plays the same position as Okoro, has been Auburn's most wildly inconsistent player all year.

Through the first two-and-a-half months of the season, he was slowly finding his footing in the rotation, improving his 3-point shot and flashing brilliant athleticism on offensive and defensive fast breaks.

He then exploded against South Carolina last month for 26 points. It wasn't exactly a breakthrough, however, as Cambridge then went scoreless for the next four games before dropping 21 and 10 points against LSU and Alabama, respectively.

Auburn needed a third straight quality showing out of Cambridge against Missouri. Instead, in 15 minutes vs. Mizzou, Cambridge was held scoreless, shot 0-for-3, was tagged for two fouls and ultimately thinned out Auburn's rotation down the stretch by getting ejected with 10 minutes left in the game for a Flagrant 2 foul.

At the time of the tangle-up between Cambridge and Mizzou guard Javon Pickett, the black and gold Tigers led by 10. After the technical-foul free throws and with the ensuing momentum, Missouri went up 17.

"What an opportunity," Pearl said. "Isaac's out, so it's a great opportunity. It's an opportunity for Danjel, it's an opportunity for Anfernee to play some (power forward), it's an opportunity for Jamal to play more, for Devan to play more, Allen to play more. So they all had the opportunity."

While Okoro's hamstring isn't viewed as a worrisome injury for the long term of Auburn's season, there's no current timetable for how long the star freshman will be out. And the Tigers' next matchup will be Wednesday at Georgia, which will be starving for an upset victory over one of its rivals on its home floor.

In order to get back in the win column this week, Pearl said his team needs to refocus and gather their "poise." But more than anything, Pearl will be looking for a more diversified final box score.

"We just didn't get enough from enough people," Pearl said. "Usually our stat sheet is littered with more guys in double figures, more contributions from lots of different people, and it just didn't happen tonight."

------

NOT A MEMBER?

JOIN AUBURNSPORTS.COM TODAY to enjoy around-the-clock content including stories, analysis, videos, podcasts, call-in shows and The Greatest Message Board In The History of The Internet.