Auburn got down big, then, Jabari Smith happened. Smith scored 12-straight Auburn points in the first half on his way to a new career-high and an Auburn 94-80 win.
Behind career-highs from Smith and Walker Kessler, along with a resurgence in 3-point shooting, Auburn cruised to a Wednesday night win and now a two-game lead in the SEC regular season title race.
Takeaways from Wednesday night's win:
Career nights
It was the Jabari Smith show inside Auburn Arena on Wednesday night as he went for a career-high 31 points, shooting 10-of-16 from the floor and 7-of-10 from deep.
Then at the end Walker Kessler knocked down a free throw to reach a new career-high of 22 points along with seven rebounds and seven blocks.
"It's the best frontcourt I've ever had, anywhere," Bruce Pearl said.
Pearl has previously said that sometimes it's as simple as "we have No. 10 and you don't," and that felt like the case on Wednesday night.
A lot of Smith's shots weren't necessarily great looks, or at least not for the average basketball player. But Smith was hitting his signature contested fadeaway and he was hitting contested threes while Vanderbilt had no answer.
Meanwhile, Kessler was his usual dominant self inside hauling in alley-oops and controlling the paint.
Shooting out of the slump
Auburn entered the game on a six-game sub-30 percent from three shooting slump.
"I don't think with us -- we're not going to start taking guys and telling them to stop shooting it," Pearl said before the game. "I'm telling them to take the same shots, but start making them."
The Tigers did exactly that against Vanderbilt. Auburn shot a season-high 50 percent from deep against the Commodores, knocking down 11 of its 22 attempts.
"That’s going to make everything we do better if we can keep it going," Pearl said. "And look, Vanderbilt, they’re first in the league in 3-point percentage defense. So the fact that we’re 11 of 22—now, Jabari made 7 of them. But he got them in transition, he got them in trail, he got them in rhythm, and he was open, so that was really good."
Another big bench game
The usual suspects off the bench were again big contributors for Auburn on Wednesday.
Wendell Green Jr. started slow, but finished with 12 points, nine assists and seven rebounds. Jaylin Williams had eight points and four boards. Devan Cambridge had six points. Dylan Cardwell had four points and three boards. The lowest plus-minus from the four bench players was Cardwell, who was +10 in his 13 minutes of game time.
“I thought our bench was terrific," Pearl said. "I want to give a shoutout to Wendell and Devan and Jaylin in particular—and Dylan. All the guys that came off the bench just did an incredible job."
Auburn's bench had 32 of the 94 points and was again a big part in Auburn's success.
“We know Dylan and Jaylin could play anywhere in the country, start anywhere in the country," Smith said. "So having them behind us gives us so much confidence coming out of the game. We’ve got people who are just as good as us coming in. It takes the pressure off us. It’s fun."
