Auburn Basketball: Takeaways from Dominating Win Over Coastal Carolina
Here we give our takeaways from the Tiger’s blowout win over Coastal Carolina Thursday night making Auburn basketball 7-2 on the season.
Auburn basketball needed an easy, blowout win and that’s exactly what they got in Auburn Arena Thursday night as they cruised past Coastal Carolina 117-72.
Auburn got out to a hot start, but then cooled off and allowed Coastal Carolina to get back within four points. Then the Tigers finished the half on a 31-5 run to pretty much put the game away.
Don’t be completely fooled by the lopsided score, this wasn’t a perfect win for Auburn basketball. You could see the lack of depth and down low presence early on when Coastal Carolina made their comeback.
Plus, the Chanticleers are not a very good team this year, even though they’ve been great in year’s past.
Let’s take a look at some of our takeaways from the game.
Purifoy Stays Hot
The redshirt freshman is quickly becoming one of the best forwards in not only the SEC, but in all of college basketball … yeah, I said it. He tied his career-high from Monday with 27 points on 9-of-14 shooting and 5-of-10 from three with 7 rebounds.
This kid can do just about everything on the court, and when he’s on fire like he has been the past two games he’s unstoppable. I’m loving watching this kid play right now.
McLemore Can Play
I said before the game that Anfernee McLemore would have to step up with Horace Spencer out, and man did he ever. The freshman was brilliant in this game finishing with 9 points and 8 rebounds.
He doesn’t really belong in the post where he’s been playing, but the 6-foot-7 forward proved tonight that he’s capable of giving you valuable minutes off the bench. He may have even earned some more playing time once Spencer is back.
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Threes a Plenty
Anytime you hit 21 threes, you’re going to have a good chance of winning. You don’t want to become dependent on 3-pointers, but you’ll certainly take them when they’re falling.
It’s ironic that Auburn basketball shot so well from three tonight without Bryce Brown. The sophomore is supposed to be the team’s 3-point specialist, but he’s struggled from deep lately.
Rebounding Issues Continue
And here is where I have to try and humble everyone. Yes, Auburn finally did out-rebound someone, but they still gave up a ton of second chance opportunities.
Coastal Carolina finished with 18 offensive rebounds. I understand Auburn basketball wants to get out and run, but you have to secure the rebound first before that can happen.
Overall this was a great game for Auburn, especially playing without two of their starters – although I’m suspecting one of them will be removed from the starting lineup permanently.
This was exactly the type of game Auburn basketball needed, especially in the wake of the suspensions of Brown and Spencer.
