Can Auburn's Wendell Green Jr., Tre Donaldson repeat their 1-2 punch performance against Houston?

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — If Bruce Pearl and his coaching staff could draw up how Auburn’s point guards would play over the final 15 minutes of a close basketball game, one would think it would look something like what happened on Thursday night in the 83-75 win over 8-seed Iowa in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

After playing his normal four-minute rotation in the first half, backup point guard Tre Donaldson entered the game with 15:56 remaining in the game and Auburn leading by 10 points. Donaldson preceded to score 11 points in a three-minute span, helping push Auburn’s lead to 15 points with just over nine minutes remaining.

When Donaldson left the game with 7:03 remaining, Iowa had regained momentum, but Auburn’s lead remained eight points. All in all, Donaldson provided a significant spark and played nearly double the amount of minutes as might have been expected in that second half.

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Donaldson’s only other double-digit scoring game of the season came at USC, when he poured in 12 points on the road. And in that game, Wendell Green Jr. only scored two points. Given the circumstances, this was Donaldson’s best performance of his early career.

“I feel like every night I’m feeling good. The opportunity presented itself and I took full advantage of the opportunity,” Donaldson said.

With the momentum back on Iowa’s side, but still with an eight-point lead, Pearl and assistant Ira Bowman inserted Wendell Green Jr. back into the game. After nearly nine minutes of game time on the bench, maybe his longest stint on the bench during a second half this season, Green Jr. came in with a specific focus.

“I knew we had to finish the game. Tre came out and said, ‘finish it.’ My team said, ‘come on Wen, finish it.’ I knew that’s what I needed to do. I tried to control the game and that’s what we did,” he said.

Green Jr. scored 10 of his 15 points in those final seven minutes, adding two assists and a steal. He was perfect from the free throw line, going six for six. It’s not an easy balance maintaining aggression, while focusing on nursing a lead in the final moments of a basketball game.

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“The main thing is trying to find the best shot, and when I can’t, try to get it on the rim and get Johni (Broome) and Jaylin (Williams) an opportunity for a rebound. They trust me with the ball,” Green Jr. said. “The main thing is getting to the free throw line the last four minutes of the half and games. That’s a guaranteed two points for us. Getting to the line is the main thing and finishing defensive possessions.”

Green Jr and Donaldson’s combined 26 points, five assists and just two turnovers was far and away the duo’s best joint performance of the season. Making that happen again against KenPom’s fourth-ranked defense in college basketball will be tall task. According to the analytics, Houston has a top-five defense nationally in two-point percentage, three-point percentage and block percentage.

“They have one of the best guards in college basketball. They have another guard and he has the same ability… they have a physical back court. It’s going to be a tough game,” fellow guard K.D. Johnson said.

Wendell Green Jr. certainly knows what to expect, and the same will go for Donaldson.

“I’ll have to get them off of me early,” Green Jr. said. “They’re going to be all up in me, so get them off of me so they can not have that pressure on me the whole game. They’re going to key in on me and mine, just get my teammates involved early and stay level headed. When it’s time to click on, it’s time to click on.”

Auburn and Houston are scheduled for a 6:10 pm CT tipoff inside Legacy Arena on Saturday evening. The game will be televised on TBS, with the winner advancing to the Midwest Regional semifinal in Kansas City, Missouri.