After playing its first five games in the span of 13 days, Auburn will get some much-deserved time off with a second straight decisive win in its back pocket.

The Tigers rode a hot start to a big win over Colgate — a team that returned four of five starters from its NCAA Tournament squad last season — in Auburn Arena on Monday evening, 91-62.

Auburn, which jumped three spots in Monday’s AP poll from No. 22 to No. 19, is now 5-0 for the first time since the 2004-05 season.

Facing off against a team picked in the preseason to win the Patriot League Conference, Auburn never trailed and led by as many as 45.

The Tigers, led once again by the hot-shooting senior trio of J’Von McCormick, Samir Doughty and Danjel Purifoy, knocked down their first three triples of the game and 6 of their first 9.

But after claiming 8 of 15 long-range attempts heading into the break, the Tigers went cold down the stretch, missing on 11 of their 13 3-point looks in the second half.

Colgate clawed back with a 19-5 run midway through the second half, bringing Auburn's lead down to as low as 29 by capitalizing on turnovers and cold shooting from the Tigers. The Raiders outscored Auburn in the second half, 41-38.

"If you let a team like Colgate with all that experience and their shot-makers hang around — look, they outplayed us in the second half," Pearl said. "We were still playing hard; we were still trying. We got outplayed.

"So, if we didn't come out with that kind of 20 minutes of effort and energy, shooting and how we were flying around, it could have been a different story."

Leaders like McCormick ultimately kept that from happening down the stretch. For the second straight game, McCormick was a spark plug for Auburn's offense. He was routinely able to break down his defender beyond the arc and get into the middle of the defense, particularly in the first half. From there, he was either able to accelerate to the rim — extending around the frontcourt defense for some fancy finishes around the rim — or suck in perimeter defenders to find his teammates for alley-oops.

McCormick dropped 14 points, a layup shy of matching his career-high set last season in the NCAA Tournament against New Mexico State. His eight assists serve as the second-most he's had in an Auburn uniform after his record-setting 16 assists last week against CSUN.

"J'Von is the fastest guy out there on the floor. You can't stay in front of him," Pearl said. "He's passing — eight assists to two turnovers is really good."

Doughty turned in his fourth career Auburn game with at least 20 points, shooting 7-for-13 from the field. He made arguably the play of the night — one that will likely end up on SportsCenter tomorrow morning — when he dropped Colgate's Jordan Burns to the deck with a crossover, then stepped back for a triple early in the first half. Doughty turned away and didn't watch the shot go down as it swished home.

Postgame, Doughty was asked numerous times about the play, but he made sure not to disrespect Burns or Colgate, saying the make was a product of his team's blazing start.

"Everybody gets crossed. He was playing great defense initially. ... No more crossover talk," Doughty joked as he exited the press room.

Center Austin Wiley posted his first double-double of the season with 13 points and 10 boards, while Purifoy scored in double digits for the fourth time in five games this year with 11 points on 3-of-4 shooting from beyond the arc. Freshman Isaac Okoro added 11 points, as well.

The starters were looked to throughout for offense, but Pearl still said postgame that his bench (22 points) will need to increase its production moving forward and provide a more steadying presence of backup if the starters were to lose their touch for a night.

"Our bench needs to play better in order for us to grow," Pearl stated plainly.

Auburn will travel to Brooklyn at the end of the week. It takes on New Mexico in the Legends Classic semifinals next Monday at 8:30 p.m. CT.

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