The No. 16 Auburn Tigers returned to Neville Arena to compete against a solid program in Saint Louis on Sunday and put on quite a show for the fans in attendance.
The Tigers and Billikens went back and forth in Auburn’s 65-60 win on Sunday, swapping leads eight times throughout the game. Allen Flanigan’s monster dunk with 1:57 remaining in the game put Auburn ahead for the final time and led them to a victory.
Sunday’s win was a great bounce-back game for Wendell Green Jr., who led the team in scoring after making just 11% of his shots in Wednesday’s game against Northwestern in the Cancun Challenge Championship game.
“It was great,” head coach Bruce Pearl of Green’s performance in Sunday’s win. “Wendell has great confidence. Wendell has great poise, great preparation. Wendell has been playing at high levels his whole life, with the exception of the one year at Eastern Kentucky, he’s been at the highest level of basketball.”
Johni Broome was another factor in the game. He followed Green by scoring 11 points in the win over the Billikens but did most of his damage defensively.
How did Green and Broome stack up in “Tigers of the Game” voting? Here is a look at how writers Taylor Jones, J.D. McCarthy, and River Wells voted following Auburn’s win over Saint Louis.
John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
Broome has been a solid defender for the Tigers this season, and showed it again in Sunday’s win. Broome led the team in blocks with eight, and reeled in eight rebounds in addition to his 11 points scored.
Broome went 4-for-14 from the field in the game, so he knew that he needed to step up in another way.
“Defense wins championships, and obviously in the off-season, I was struggling. I knew how to make an impact on the game and that was by rebounding and blocking shots,” Broome said after the game. “Eight blocks, I didn’t even know I had eight blocks today.”
John Reed-USA TODAY Sports
Wendell Green is no stranger to leading his team in points. However, he usually does the most damage in the 2nd half.
On Sunday, Auburn fans got the complete show, as Green scored 14 points in the first half, and scored an additional eight points in the second half. His complete game effort led to a season-high 22 points.
It marks the fifth time this season that Green has reached double-figures and the second time that he has scored 20 or more points in a game.
John Reed-USA…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Basketball | Auburn Wire…