By Ken Cross
“The show must go on” is a quote from 19th-century literature where motivation was the key to continuing to fight problems; yet, turn out a winner.
The No. 11 Auburn Tigers blasted American East Conference favorite Vermont, 94-43, as the Tigers used an 18-3 run midway through the first half to build a 28-10 lead when guard JP Pegues hit back-to-back threes.
“The outcome and the margin really had everything to do with how we respect Vermont,” said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. “I promise you Vermont came in with a game plan to try to win this game. I’ve been at that level. I have been there before and I know what it takes to have upsets like this.”
Chauncey Johnson powered a 10-0 run late in the first half as Auburn banished the Catamounts to their own cage by opening the second half on a 32-4 run. The Tigers took an 81-25 lead with 10:23 to go as Miles Kelly buried four of Auburn’s triples in that run.
“We shot so well that we overwhelmed them with some of our athleticism, our depth, and defensively, and just our rim protection,” explained Pearl.
The Tigers fit into “the show must gone on” motif as they won the SEC Tournament a season ago and were deflated by Yale, 78-76, in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament where an official made and incompetent Flagrant-2 call on Chad Baker-Mazara which was a problem in losing a two-way player, just four minutes into the game.
“I do think we did played defense well without fouling and obviously Saturday at Houston is a completely different matchup with their size athleticism and physicality,” Pearl commented. “We are not celebrating, so don’t read in too much.”
Kelly paced five Tigers in double figures with 21 points while Denver Jones netted 16 for Auburn, who held Vermont to 25.9 percent from the field and scored 25 points off of 16 Catamounts turnovers.
Razorbacks Stop Lipscomb with Late Run
“The show must go on” for Arkansas head coach John Calipari as well. The Hall of Famer moved into Fayetteville from Lexington, Kentucky, last spring and it feels like a superior decision for both Cal and the Arkansas program. Those last three seasons at Kentucky were tough with the consensus of grumbling fans who didn’t realize not did they understand how Calipari builds programs.
Calipari was fighting different kinds of problems, but he was a huge winner in taking over the Razorbacks program when coach Eric Musselman left for USC.
Opening night proved to be a winner as well when the Hogs held off Atlantic Sun favorite Lipscomb, 76-60. True freshman Boogie Fland led all scorers with 17 points while FAU transfer Johnell Davis netted 14.
“That is a very, very hard game to play out of the gate because they are going to be disciplined and you had better be in shape because they are going to run you for 25 seconds and we play fast and pressure, so we had guys exhausted only three minutes into the game,” said John Calipari.
No. 16 Arkansas had a 60-45 lead with 11:27 to play, but Bisons guard Will Pruitt led an 11-0 as Lipscomb managed to within 60-56 when Logan Suber hit a jumper with 7:57 remaining.
Zvonimir Ivisic and Adou Thiero finished strong in helping the Hogs pass Lipscomb by combining for 12 of the Razorbacks’ 16 points down the stretch. Arkansas stepped up on defense as well in allowing only one field goal in 9 attempts for the Bison over that last 7:47.
“Defensively, we did some very good things, but we had to create a gap by creating turnovers,” said Calipari.
Arkansas scored 25 points off of 19 Bisons turnovers, but the Razorbacks were only 4-of-19 from three.
“How about this thought – make a three,” Calipari said. “You make 7-of-8 today or three or four more, I want you to think of the score. We had 19 threes. I am glad we didn’t shoot more because we would have missed more.”