No. 21 Auburn caught a break in between matchups with two top 10 foes as it took down Chattanooga 92-78 on Saturday at Atlanta's State Farm Arena in the annual Holiday Hoopsgiving event.
With the win, the Tigers improved to 8-3 on the season and improved to 8-1 in Atlanta since 2020.
Here are the biggest takeaways from the game:
Hall and Pettiford lead the charge
Auburn leaned on its prolific scoring threat once again on Saturday as Keyshawn Hall led all scorers with 22 points on a 5-of-9 mark from the field. It marked Hall’s seventh 20-point outing in nine games played this season.
Tahaad Pettiford, who opened the game with a triple, notched 20 points – 14 in the second half – with five triples. It was his fourth 20-point outing, as he was coming off a career-high 30-point performance against No. 2 Arizona last week.
Elijah Freeman turned in one of his best scoring performances of the season, tallying 19 points on a 7-of-13 clip from the field with a pair of triples while adding seven rebounds.
Auburn shot 49% from the field, and its 92 points were the most in five games.
Auburn’s size bothers the Mocs
Auburn had a distinct size advantage over Chattanooga on Saturday, and it showed as the Tigers owned a 42-20 advantage on the boards with 14 coming on the offensive end. As a result, Auburn cashed in on 16 second-chance points.
Although Auburn dominated the glass, the Mocs took home a 36-30 advantage in points scored in the paint, marking the third straight game Auburn has been outscored down low.
The Tigers tallied a trio of blocks, but allowed Chattanooga’s Jordan Frison to score 14 of his 20 points in 2-point land.
Auburn cashes in on its free throws
If you’re not already, you'd better get used to Auburn making plenty of trips to the charity stripe.
Auburn, 15th nationally in free throws attempted per game with 27.3, surpassed that mark on Saturday, making 37 trips to the free-throw line. It cashed in on 29 of those trips, marking the most free throws made in a game this season.
Hall, who is 20th nationally in free throw attempts, led the Tigers with an 11-of-14 clip from the line, while five other Tigers made at least three free throws.
Still too many turnovers
Saturday marked the third consecutive game that Auburn notched double-digit turnovers with 13 – the third-highest of the season.
Five Tigers coughed the ball up at least two times, with Pettiford turning it over a team-high three times.
Chattanooga turned those into 15 points on the other end, which is also the third straight game Auburn has been outscored in that regard – Auburn notched 12 points off of six Chattanooga turnovers.
Auburn turned the ball over only three times in the last 14 minutes of action, but the sloppy play is a trend head coach Steven Pearl will look to mitigate as the Tigers near conference play.
Auburn will return to action next Saturday against No. 6 Purdue at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Ind. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m. on Peacock.
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