Fresh off its third conference loss in four games, Auburn will return home on Saturday to face South Carolina at Neville Arena, aiming to avoid a 1-4 start in SEC play.
A week ago, the Tigers routed then-No. 15 Arkansas by 22 points to capture their first SEC win. That momentum stalled on Wednesday, when a sluggish performance resulted in a 10-point road loss to Missouri.
“What we do doesn’t work unless you play with great effort and energy,” said Auburn head coach Steven Pearl. “I’ve got to do a better job as their coach of being able to bring that out of them because you’ve seen what it can look like when we do.”
An off night for Auburn's leading scorers, Keyshawn Hall and Tahaad Pettiford, opened the door for another encouraging performance from Filip Jovic. The 6-foot-8 freshman from Bosnia and Herzegovina has missed just one shot in SEC play, going 10-for-11 from the field - a 91% clip - including seven consecutive makes.
“He’s been great,” Pearl said. “He does everything we ask, does all the little things that are required to win. We’ve got to find a way to get him more minutes because he’s effective when he’s out there. He plays hard, he rebounds, he gets vertical at the rim, he slides his feet, and he makes layups. He’s done everything we’ve asked him to do, and we’ve got to reward that.”
South Carolina enters Saturday 10-7 overall, also seeking to avoid a 1-4 start in league play. The Gamecocks are led offensively by guard Meechie Johnson, who is coming off a 29-point performance against Arkansas on Wednesday and averages 14.7 points per game.
South Carolina leads the SEC in free-throw percentage at 78.7% while averaging fewer than 10 turnovers per game.
“A prolific scorer,” Pearl said of Johnson. “They do a great job of getting to the foul line. When they make threes, they’re a different basketball team. This is an incredibly capable team.”
Auburn will look to extend its win streak to 10 over the Gamecocks Saturday at 5 p.m. on SEC Network.
“We’ve got to stop having conversations,” Pearl said. “We’ve got to be more about action.”
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