No. 8 Auburn cruises to 50-point win over Saint Peter's

AUBURN, Ala. – There would be no hangover after the Maui Invitational. A week after picking up two wins in Hawaii, No. 8 Auburn returned home Wednesday night and cruised to a 99-49 victory over Saint Peter's to improve to 6-1 on the season.
 
It was the 16th-largest win in Auburn history and the second time an Auburn team has won by 50 or more points under head coach Bruce Pearl.

"It's been seven days since we've played and obviously when you leave Maui, there's a tendency to get a little Polynesian paralysis," Pearl said. "But our kids didn't play to the opponent. We tried to focus on ourselves.
 
"Defensively, to hold them 27 percent and turn them over 26 times, I thought we did good job guarding. With 16 steals, you are trying to make plays defensively. So, that was really positive. I thought we executed on offensive fairly well with 25 assists. A little sloppy at times but overall I thought it was a good workout for us."
 
Anfernee McLemore and Bryce Brown paced the Tigers with 19 points apiece. For McLemore, it tied his career high and marked the second time this season he's scored in double figures. The junior big man also pulled down five rebounds and blocked two shots in 18 minutes of action.
 
Brown was honored before the game after he set the Auburn career record for 3-pointers his last time out against Arizona. The senior picked up right where he left off, knocking down three shots from long range. He finished 7 of 11 from the field and filled up the stat sheet with five assists and four rebounds. It was the fifth straight game that Brown has scored at least 16 points.
 
Austin Wiley (16), Malik Dunbar (14) and Chuma Okeke (12) joined McLemore and Brown, giving Auburn five players in double figures Wednesday night.
 
Led by Wiley and Dunbar, it was another standout performance by the Auburn bench who scored 41 points on the night. The Tigers have now outscored their opponents, 74-7, in bench points over the last two games. Wiley also pulled down a team-high nine rebounds, and Dunbar, who drained four-3-point shots, has been a catalyst for this team with 29 points off the bench over his last two games. 

"Malik brings personality, intensity and he's always going to play hard and aggressive," McLemore said. "He's a guy that we can feed off of when we need energy. We can always count on him to be there to pick us up." 

Point guard Jared Harper didn't score in double figures for the second straight game, but he did lead everybody with eight assists and three steals. As a team, the Tigers had the most assists (25) and steals (16) in the Pearl era and the most in Auburn Arena history.
 
It was the defense that set the tone early for Auburn. Saint Peter's didn't make its first shot from the field until the 12:57 mark in the first half and shot just 24 percent (7 of 29) from the field in the first 20 minutes. As a result, the Tigers – who made eight 3s alone in the first half – took a 51-23 lead into halftime.
 
Auburn will return home next Tuesday to face UNC Asheville at 7 p.m. CT.
 
Greg Ostendorf is a Senior Writer for AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: @greg_ostendorf