Tigers win big game in Charlottesville

[Pell City Tiger]

Auburn Basketball Wins Thriller At Virginia, 58-56

Korvotney Barber finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - Tay Waller and DeWayne Reed made back-to-back 3-pointers in the final two minutes and Reed blocked a game-winning 3-point attempt to give Auburn a 58-56 victory at Virginia before a raucous crowd of 11,070 at John Paul Jones Arena Saturday.

Virginia (4-4) scored 12 straight points to turn a 50-42 deficit with 9:15 remaining into a 54-50 lead with 4:45 left. The two teams then traded baskets with Virginia going up 56-52 with 4:02 left on a Sammy Zeglinski jumper, which turned out to be Virginia"s final points of the game.

"I am really proud of our team in facing adversity after Virginia made that run in the second half," said Auburn head coach Jeff Lebo. "We made some big plays down the stretch. Our defense played pretty well, and they didn"t hurt us inside at all, and we doubled when it went in there.

"It's great winning the game when you shoot as poorly as we did. Tay Waller missed eight threes and six of them were right there on line with back rim misses. Those were two big threes Tay and DeWayne made."

Auburn had its largest lead ahead by 13 points at the 18:24 mark of the second half. After Virginia battled back to regain the lead, Auburn (6-4) answered with a 3-pointer by Waller to draw the Tigers to within 56-55 with 2:16 left. Waller was 1-of-9 from behind the arc before the shot.

Korvotney Barber, who led the Tigers with team-bests of 14 points and a season-high 13 rebounds, stole the ball from Virginia's Mike Scott on the ensuing possession. It was Barber's second double-double of the season.

The Tigers then turned the turnover into what was the shot of the game by Reed, who drained a 3-pointer to give Auburn the lead for good at 58-56 with 1:24 remaining. Virginia had two more possessions to tie or take the lead but Zeglinski, who scored all nine of his points in the second half, had his game-winning 3-point attempt blocked by Reed on the right baseline with four seconds on the clock.

"The big man for Virginia was backing up on me because I blew by him a couple of times on a high ball screen, and he backed up too much to give me an open 3-pointer so I shot it and it went in," said Reed on his game-winning 3-pointer.

"There were then 14 seconds on the clock when they got the ball back in, and I knew Zeglinski was going to take the shot and Coach told me to stay with him and don"t let him touch the ball. He came off another screen, and I had to get over it and I jumped to block it. I knew he was going to shoot it because he is one of their playmakers."

The Cavaliers then fouled Auburn on the rebound but the Tigers weren"t in the one-and-one free throw situation. The Tigers then in-bounded the ball by throwing it the length of the court to a wide open Quantez Robertson, who dribbled out the final two seconds.

Auburn opened the game with a 9-2 run less than three minutes in, and Virginia only led for two seconds in the first half at 12-11. The Tigers quickly regained the lead and used a 9-1 run to go up 20-14.

A pair of Sylven Landesberg free throws tied it at 21 with 6:02 left in the half, but the Cavaliers wouldn"t score again as the Tigers closed on a 11-0 run for a 32-21 halftime advantage. In fact, Virginia didn"t score a field goal in the final 7:48 of the first half and a point in the final 4:02 of the game.

Reed added 12 points and four assists for Auburn while Lucas Hargrove had 10 rebounds and four points and Rasheem Barrett 10 points and four rebounds, both of them coming off the bench. Tay Waller chipped in eight points.

Auburn shot 34 percent from the field and 22 percent from 3-point range and won despite shooting 28.6 percent from the field in the second half. The Tigers outrebounded the Cavaliers 44-30, including a whopping 14-2 advantage on the offensive glass. Barber had seven offensive rebounds for Auburn. Virginia came into the game outrebounding its opponents by an average of 10 boards per game. Auburn had a 12-0 advantage in second chance points.

Virginia was led by Landesberg's game-high 22 points, including 10-of-14 shooting from the foul line. No other Cavalier reached double figures. Both teams had 12 turnovers apiece, and Virginia only led the game for 3:07.

Auburn limited Virginia to shoot only 20.8 percent (5-of-24) from the field in the first half, but the Cavaliers improved to 52 percent (13-of-25) in the second half to finish shooting 37 percent for the game from the field and 28 percent (5-of-18) from 3-point range.

Auburn was only 8-of-15 (.533) from the foul line while Virginia was 15-of-21 (.714).

Auburn played the game without a pair of players in guard Frankie Sullivan and forward Brendon Knox. Sullivan did not make the trip as he was attending the funeral of his cousin who died tragically in an automobile accident. Sullivan is averaging 10.0 points in 21.1 minutes per game for the Tigers this season. Knox is sidelined with an illness.

Auburn returns to action as it plays host to Alabama State Monday at 7 pm Central in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum as the Tigers close out a stretch of three games in six days with their final game before the holiday break. Tickets for the Alabama State game are $5 each on game-day only.

[Tiger Six]

All the more impressive was the absence of Frankie.