Jasper unlocked

AUBURN | Zep Jasper's coaches and teammates knew he had it in him.

But it took a text from Bruce Pearl a couple of days ago to spur Auburn’s senior point guard into playing more aggressively on the offensive end.

“He's so confident defensively, I just wanted him to know that I believed in him offensively,” said Pearl. “I think we would be better for it. And we were. And, look, Zep made the shots. Zep made the plays.”

Jasper scored a season-high 15 points against Ole Miss Wednesday night to lead the 3rd-ranked Tigers to a 77-64 win at Neville Arena. He made 5 of 7 from the floor including 4 of 5 3-pointers.

In his previous three games since returning from an illness, Jasper had scored just one point combined on 0 of 5 shooting. He came into the game averaging 4.5 points per game.

“(Pearl) thinks I should be more aggressive and be looking for my shot and try to open it up for other guys, because they kind of key on other guys,” said Jasper. “They don’t key on me to look to take a shot, so I think that him texting me, that was a key aspect in tonight’s game.”

Being a scoring point guard isn’t unknown territory for Jasper. His points per game increased in each of his three seasons at College of Charleston before transferring to Auburn including a 15.6 average as a junior last year.

"It’s something I know he can do,” said backup point guard Wendell Green. “I tell him to do it too more often, so hopefully we can just keep that going, you know, and he just keeps getting his confidence up and keep doing what he’s doing.”

Jasper’s scoring and 3-point shooting could be just what the doctor ordered for an Auburn offense that had struggled with consistency over the previous four games. It could be a boost as the Tigers head into the final three games of the regular season and then into tournament play.

It paid off against the Rebels as AU shot 45.8 percent from the floor and made nine 3-pointers.

“Well, it certainly gives us a greater balance,” said Pearl. “It certainly changes our ball-screen offense. You got to guard him behind that ball screen, and that was important, so it definitely makes us harder to guard and takes a little pressure off of everybody.”

Auburn, which improves to 25-3 overall and 13-2 in the SEC, plays the first of two consecutive road games at No. 17 Tennessee Saturday at 3 p.m. CT on ESPN2.