Auburn Basketball Faces Final Test at home Before Conference Play
After an outstanding performance at home against Coastal Carolina Thursday in which Auburn basketball scored a season-high 117 points, the Tigers will face Mercer.
Auburn basketball will face Mercer at home Sunday before hitting the road to play Oklahoma and UCONN and then starting the conference schedule.
The Tigers responded nicely from a bad loss to Boston College by destroying Coastal Carolina Thursday 117-72.
It sounds as if Auburn basketball could be without Horace Spencer and Bryce Brown again after the two were suspended indefinitely following their arrests for marijuana possession.
I think Spencer is the bigger loss here as Auburn continues to struggle on the boards, even at times against Coastal Carolina who had 18 offensive rebounds.
As for Mercer, they come into this game on Sunday with a 5-5 record. They have some pretty good losses to top teams, including Florida and Clemson. However, they weren’t really close to winning either of those games.
Junior guard Ria’n Holland leads the team in scoring averaging 17.7 points per game. Junior guard Demetre Rivers is second on the team averaging 12.8 points per game. Another junior guard, Jordan Strawberry, leads the team with 41 assists.
A couple of more juniors, Stephon Jelks and Desmond Ringer, are the team’s top rebounders at 5.4 and 5.2 rebounds per game respectively. Ringer is 6-foot-9, while Jelks is only 6-foot-6.
This team doesn’t have much height either, much like Coastal Carolina, so I don’t think they’ll give Auburn many problems.
More from Fly War Eagle
The Bears scores just 68.2 points per game, but they only give up 66.2.
If Auburn basketball can get out and run like they did late in the first half against Coastal Carolina, then I think this can be another easy win. I don’t expect them to shoot like they did against Coastal Carolina, but we are much more athletic than them and need to use that to our advantage.
I really look for Danjel Purifoy to continue his hot streak and score over 20 points again. I’d like to see Mustapha Heron get more involved in rebounding. Not that he’s been bad as he’s been one of our best rebounders all year, but I think he can do even more and push for a double-double every game.
I’m also looking forward to seeing how Anfernee McLemore does in this game if Spencer is still out. He really impressed me against Coastal Carolina and I’m hoping he can back that performance up against Mercer on Sunday.
Prediction: Auburn – 78 Mercer – 67
