Best-seed Auburn pulls away to dispatch Alabama State

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Miles Kelly scored a game-high 23 issues to steer Auburn, the highest general seed within the NCAA Match, to an 83-63 victory over 16-seed Alabama State on Thursday in a first-round South Area sport.

Kelly completed 7 of 15 from 3-point vary whilst participant of the yr candidate Johni Broome overcame a sluggish begin to end with 14 issues and 11 rebounds because the Tigers pulled away in the second one part. Tahaad Pettiford completed with 16 issues for Auburn.

Auburn (29-5) advances to the second one around in opposition to ninth-seed 9 Creighton, which earned an 89-75 victory over Louisville.

Amarr Knox had 18 for Alabama State (20-16), whilst TJ Madlock added 11 and CJ Hines chipped in with 9 issues. Knox hit the buzzer-beating layup in opposition to Saint Francis (PA) within the First 4 to get the Hornets into the primary around.

Kelly were given the Tigers off to a quick get started by way of hitting his first 4 3-point makes an attempt as Auburn took an 18-8 lead not up to 8 mins into the sport.

Alabama State would not cross quietly within the first part. Following a Broome turnover within the lane, the Hornets ignored back-to-back 3-point makes an attempt. However they grabbed the offensive rebound every time, together with an Ubong Okon putback to cap a 9-0 run and draw Alabama State inside of 28-24 with 5:31 left within the first part.

With Auburn lacking 9 directly photographs, the Hornets had an opportunity to take the lead overdue within the first part, however Knox used to be brief with a couple of loose throws with 1:27 last. Auburn spoke back by way of scoring the general 9 issues to take a 41-31 halftime lead.

After the Hornets drew to inside of 8 within the opening 30 seconds of the second one part, Auburn spoke back with an 13-3 run, that includes a four-point play from Pettiford and a 3-pointer from Denver Jones to open the result in 54-36.

Auburn went up 71-51 with 5:21 last and not noticed its lead drop below 20 issues the remainder of the best way.

–Through Mike Petraglia, Box Stage Media