Auburn secured a 71-67 victory over South Carolina on Saturday at Neville Arena, with freshman Filip Jovic scoring a career-high 23 points. The win marked Auburn’s tenth consecutive victory against South Carolina and their second Southeastern Conference (SEC) win of the season.
Auburn coach Steven Pearl credited the home crowd for their support. “Another great environment. Our fans constantly show up and we don’t win this game without them,” Pearl said. “Hard-fought game. Filip Jovic was phenomenal. He’s really physical and bouncy and does a great job of using his body to score on angles. He was the difference in the game tonight.”
Jovic contributed significantly in the closing minutes, making a steal and dunk to give Auburn an 11-point lead with under five minutes left. “I played aggressively defensively and the game came to me,” Jovic said. “We have a lot of scorers. We won this game today defensively. My teammates were finding me in great spots.”
South Carolina narrowed the gap late, coming within two points after Meechie Johnson hit a contested three-pointer with four seconds remaining. Auburn’s Kevin Overton then made two free throws to secure the win.
KeShawn Murphy and Sebastian Williams-Adams each added 11 points for Auburn, while Williams-Adams also collected eight rebounds as Auburn overcame poor three-point shooting.
“For us to be able to find a way to win that game, that’s a positive,” Pearl said. “We got a lot of good looks and we didn’t convert.”
Keyshawn Hall, Auburn’s leading scorer, was limited by foul trouble but made four crucial free throws in the final half-minute. “To his credit, he stayed engaged, he stayed locked and makes four free throws to seal the game,” Pearl said.
Tahaad Pettiford scored nine points, provided five assists, committed only one turnover in 33 minutes, and led Auburn in plus-minus at plus-10. “Really impressed with Tahaad,” Pearl said. “He did such a great job of getting the ball to his open teammates. He did a great job of bouncing back from a tough game.”
Jovic shot 9-of-12 from the field and added six rebounds for Auburn (11-7, 2-3 SEC). South Carolina coach Lamont Paris acknowledged Jovic’s performance: “His impact was obvious. You exert so much effort on getting the two main culprits (Hall and Pettiford) slowed down that someone had to do something,” Paris said. “He seized his opportunity. Good on him for doing that. He had a really big impact.”
Auburn led by six at halftime after holding South Carolina (10-8, 1-4 SEC) to just 24 first-half points on 25 percent shooting.
“Our first-half defense was as good as it’s been all year,” Pearl said. “To turn that team over 15 times was important. We didn’t let our offense affect our defense and that’s something this team has been struggling with.”
Auburn will play its next two games on the road against Ole Miss and Florida before returning home for its January 28 matchup against Texas.
“For us to have the confidence to see we can win some of these grind-‘em-out games because that’s going to happen on the road,” Pearl said. “For us to be able to pull one through playing like that, it’s important, it’s something we can draw from.”
The Tigers used their starting lineup of Pettiford, Overton, Hall, Williams-Adams, and Murphy for the sixth time this season; Hall and Overton have started every game so far.
Saturday’s contest marked Neville Arena’s 79th consecutive sellout with an attendance of 9,121 fans.
Auburn outscored South Carolina by sixteen points in the paint (42-26), marking their eighth game this season with at least forty points inside.
The Tigers went 23-of-30 from the free throw line overall—including making all six attempts in the final thirty-one seconds—and registered double-digit steals for the seventh time this season.
Freshmen Jovic and Williams-Adams combined for thirty-four points and fourteen rebounds along with five steals and two blocks.
