Guard Kevin Overton scored a career-high 29 points as he and Keyshawn Hall joined a quality defensive effort in staving off NC State, 83-73. Photo courtesy of Auburn Athletics.
Auburn guards Kevin Overton and Keyshawn Hall scored 29 and 28 points to ignite the No. 20 Tigers’ offense as they past improved North Carolina State, 83-73, in the SEC/ACC Challenge on Wednesday evening.
Overton paced Auburn with his career high as the Tigers needed the shooting prowess of these two guards to overcome 22 Wolfpack turnovers on 20 Tigers turnovers. Thirteen came in the first half and equated to 16 NCSU points.
“Our offense has got to get better,” said Auburn coach Steven Pearl. “If it wasn’t for tough shotmaking by KO and Keyshawn Hall, we don’t win that game. Two of our best players bailed us out when we had very poor performances from other guys on our team.”
The Tigers came into the game averaging only 9.1 turnovers over their first eight game, but Wednesday night became a mystery with the high increase in turnovers.
“Our execution has got to get better for us to beat the best teams on our schedule,” said Coach Steven Pearl. “Twenty turnovers lead to 22 points, and as a team that averages 93, they scored 22, that’s 51 in the halfcourt. So our defense — we’ll get to that in a second — answered the bell.”
Overton scored ten points in a row in the first 5:02 of the second half, but NC State’s Quadir Copeland and Tre Holloman were able to score on five free throws, and then Hollomon made a three to cut the Auburn lead to 56-54 with 12:08 left to play.
“Defensively, I’m proud of our effort,” commented Pearl. “They have a lot of talented players. Copeland, he’s such a handful, man. When he makes 3s, he’s a pro. They did a really good job exposing us, posting us up. We did a good job on McNeal, did a really good job on Darrion Williams. I think Holloman and Copeland played well.”
NC State coach Will Wade explained how the Wolpack were offensively foiled by the Auburn defense.
“We didn’t take very good three,” he said. “The zones messed us up playing the 3-2, switching it up to man. We didn’t get our inside-out threes.”
Hall then pushed the lead into double figures as he sparked a 10-0 run by following Sebastian Williams-Adams’ score inside with his own dunk and back-to-back three pointers to move the lead back into double digits at 66-54.
“Keyshawn is the most accountable guy you can have offensively,” Pearl said. “He recognized that he made some bad passes, some errant passes, so offensively, we got bailed out by two of our better players.”
NC State head coach Will Wade is turning the Wolfpack over with an uptempo offense that shoots the three at 42.2 percent, fourth in college basketball, while averaging 93.6 points per game. His offense averages 15.1 seconds per possession. Williams averages 18.7 ppg as he leads five Wolfpack in double figures.
Pearl noted that the Wolfpack made ten three-pointers and that Auburn’s objective was to hold them under ten triples.
“They made some threes, and we missed some threes,” said Wade, per Auburn Observer reporter Justin Ferguson. “They made tough 3s. Give Hall and Overton credit, they’re great players… and they did a great job tonight.”