AUBURN | It’s been home, sweet home for Auburn over the last six days.
The Tigers wrapped up a perfect three-game homestand Tuesday night with a 76-62 win over Florida. Auburn broke an 11-game losing streak to the Gators to improve to 16-6 overall and 5-4 in the SEC.
“We were 2-4 and needed to win these games, and we did. We just beat a good basketball team,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said.
Playing four of its first six conference games on the road, Auburn came into its homestand 2-4 in the league and riding a three-game losing streak. AU beat Missouri by 32 points last Wednesday and Alabama by 21 Saturday.
Three players scored in double-figures against the Gators led by Bryce Brown with 14. Samir Doughty added 12 and Chuma Okeke 11.
The Tigers led 36-30 at halftime but used a 13-2 run to take a 15-point lead after the first 4:21 on the second half. AU led by as many as 18 in the second half. Auburn shot 48 percent from the floor including 9 of 25 3-point range, and scored 19 points off 17 UF turnovers.
“We knew they weren’t a team that turned the ball over, so that was something that as guards and as bigs, we talked about trying to turn them over,” Doughty said. “It was like taking on a challenge to get them to turn the ball over and it went out way tonight, but they’re a great team.”
Austin Wiley played for the first time since Jan. 16, scoring two points and grabbing two rebounds in five minutes. Auburn’s starting center, who missed five games with a lower leg injury, didn’t play in the second half. Okeke and Jared Harper both went to the locker room with minor injuries in the first half but returned to the game.
“(Wiley) got kicked again, and because, again, he got kicked in a spot where he was going to feel it. I was trying to play him five, eight minutes tonight. I just felt like at halftime, once we kinda of heated him up, I just didn’t want to have him go back in. Just progressing, progressing, but he did take a hit.
“We got three guys. Jared sprained his ankle, pretty sore. Taped him up. He’s going to really be sore tomorrow. And Chuma landed on his hip and he’s pretty sore. He’ll be really sore tomorrow."
Kevarrius Hayes had a team-high 11 points as the Gators fell to 12-10 overall and 4-5 in the SEC.
Auburn returns to action Saturday afternoon at LSU. Tip-off is scheduled for 1 p.m. CT on ESPN2.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Samir Doughty shot 4 of 8 from the floor including 2 of 4 from 3-point range to score 12 points, his high in nine conference games. He added five rebounds, two assists and three steals in 32 minutes.
PLAY OF THE GAME: Chuma Okeke drove into the lane with two separate spin moves and then found Samir Doughty on the left wing for a wide open 3-pointer, which gave Auburn a 28-19 lead with 8:08 remaining in the first half.
STAT OF THE NIGHT: Florida made a blistering 63.3 percent of its shots inside the 3-point line and made 12 of 12 free throws, but only made 4 of 20 from outside the arc.
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT: Bruce Pearl on Samir Doughty: “I thought Samir was terrific. I thought he was confident offensively, still played with that Philly swag, but he took on some defensive identity. He took on Keyvaughn Allen and did a great job using his length, was physical. You know, Samir is a smart player and he used his smarts to be able to get where he needed to be on the floor to make plays defensively. And he can break you down. He’s a willing passer. In this offseason, when we get him a little bit more explosive physically, he’ll start to finish some of that Euro, Philly, swagger stuff.”
