The aftermath: No. 9 Auburn fights through foul trouble, beats Florida

No. 9 Auburn (14-1) beat Florida (9-5) 85-73 Saturday night, giving the Tigers a 3-0 start in SEC play ahead of Tuesday’s rivalry showdown at Alabama. 

The first half started with a 17-6 Auburn run, while the second half started with 11 fouls in the first 5:11, but Auburn had to hang on through several Florida runs to pull out the 12-point win.

The game saw KD Johnson break out of his slump, displayed Auburn’s elite depth, and saw Auburn beat Florida on the boards. 

KD Johnson was Auburn’s leading scorer with 23 points, while Jabari Smith (13), Wendell Green (13), and Jaylin Williams joined Johnson in double figures. 

Auburn dealt with foul trouble for most of the second half. KD Johnson and Walker Kessler had two fouls each, and Jabari Smith and Zep Jasper had three each early in the second half.

The foul trouble hurt Auburn’s interior defense and rebounding and aided Florida’s runs, but the Tigers’ bench played one of its best games of the season and Kessler and Smith were efficient when they played.

Despite Auburn winning the overall battle on the boards, Florida outrebounded Auburn on the offense glass and had 21 second chance points to Auburn’s 12. 

Auburn had a good night on offense and put up the most points it has scored since beat Nebraska 99-68 in Atlanta. Auburn scored 85 against Florida, shooting 54 percent from the field, 44 percent from three, and 77 percent from the line. 

The 54-percent mark was the highest team field goal shooting percentage Auburn has posted this season.

One main takeaway: Auburn’s depth is no joke

With Auburn’s starting bigs in foul trouble, Florida cut Auburn’s lead to two points several times and to one point once. With Auburn’s best shot blocker and best rebounder out of the game, Florida had five offensive rebounds in the first 10 minutes of the second half after only grabbing two in all of the first half.

The absence of Walker Kessler also let Florida big man Colin Castleton put up 13 points in the same stretch. Despite the initial Florida run, Auburn’s depth settled in and started playing well. 

Auburn’s bench finished the night with 35 points and 90 combined minutes played. Nine Auburn players finished with double digit minutes played.

Dylan Cardwell finished the night with 7 rebounds, 2 blocks, 1 assist, and 0 turnovers in 14 minutes, while Jaylin Williams had a season high 14 points in 21 minutes. 

Cardwell gave up several baskets to Castleton during Florida’s run, but he played as good of defense as he could. Cardwell contested most of Castleton’s shots, but Castleton got to his spot and made difficult shots against everyone.

Williams’s and Cardwell’s defense gave Auburn’s starters enough of a break to where both checked back in down the stretch and contributed in big ways. Including Jabari Smith hitting a huge second half three when Florida got within one point, and Kessler making several stops against Castleton. 

“We all know Jabari will make that shot 9 times out of 10, maybe 10 times out of 10,” said Williams.

Smith’s shot was a bit of a turning point in the game for Auburn, which never really let Florida back into it after that shot.

Kessler did foul out, but not before posting six points, eight rebounds, and three blocks in 24 minutes.

KD Johnson breaks out of his slump, others struggle against UF pressure

KD Johnson had his best game in a while, which is saying much after the slump Johnson has gone though, but he was Auburn’s MVP against Florida. 

Johnson finished the game with 23 points and three steals. It was his first time scoring in double digits since Dec. 14 at SLU and his first time with multiple threes in a game since Dec. 4 against Yale.

“He’s a dangerous man. He just is. They can’t stay in front of him. He drives in there and there’s so much contact in there. Whether he initiates it or not, there’s a lot of contact in there,” said Pearl.

The Auburn guard had success in all aspects of his game. He made several steals and fast break plays, drilled a few threes in Auburn’s half-court offense, attacked the rim, and got to the line. 

“It felt [really] good,” Johnson said after the game. “It felt even better getting the team win. My confidence was high the whole game. After I hit a couple of threes, I started feeling it and BP just decided to keep feeding it to me, and my confidence went up even more after that.” 

While Johnson played well, Bruce Pearl said he was concerned with how Auburn’s other guards handled the pressure. Zep Jasper finished the night with four assists and just one turnover, but he only made one shot. Wendell Green had four assists and five turnovers, but he did score 13 points.

“Their pressure bothered my point guards. I’m not happy with how our point guards [dealt] with pressure tonight,” Pearl said. 

Pearl credited Jaylin Williams and Jabari Smith for taking pressure off of Auburn’s guards and helping them bring the ball up the court.

Auburn’s rebounding continues to impress

In the early part of the season, Auburn’s rebounding was a concern. Auburn was playing good rebounding mid major teams, but Auburn’s massive, talented, athetlic, and deep front court was still being out rebounded.

Auburn has flipped the script since then, winning the rebounding battle in each of its first three SEC games. The Tigers outrebounded Florida 39-31 despite the starters’ foul trouble.

Florida did go on an offensive rebounding run when Auburn initially delt with foul trouble, but Auburn’s bench rebounded well enough to keep it from being a big issue.

Auburn had to find new offense

Bruce Pearl said Mike White continued doing a good job of defending Auburn, and this year his specialty was defending Auburn’s ball screen—the Tigers’ bread and butter this season.

Auburn instead found offense with fast break points and isolation scoring. Wendell Green had several wins in isolation, especially when Florida switched its bigs onto him. KD Johnson also had his scoring outburst coming from catch and shoot threes and attacking the basket.

Points in the paint were evidence of Auburn finding different methods of scoring. Kessler only had six points and Cardwell didn’t score in his absence, but Auburn still had 44 points in the paint.

The fouls were bad

There were 11 fouls in the first 5:09 of the second half. Florida was in the bonus four minutes in the second half. Colin Castleton shot 11 free throws, and Tyree Appleby added eight.

Auburn had 21 fouls called on it, while Florida fouled 19 times. The game averaged almost one foul a minute, slowing the game down and giving both teams foul trouble.

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