After escaping a monumental upset by the skin of their teeth in Monday’s season opener, the 20th-ranked Auburn Tigers put forth a much more convincing effort in a 95-57 win over Merrimack at the Neville Center in Auburn, Ala., on Wednesday.
Journeyman transfer Keyshawn Hall led Auburn in scoring for the second straight game to start the season, tallying a double-double with 25 points on 6-of-9 shooting in addition to 14 rebounds. Freshman Sebastian Williams-Adams scored 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting. Sophomore Tahaad Pettiford added 13 points on a less-efficient 4-of-13 from the field or the Tigers, who needed overtime to beat Bethune-Cookman 95-90 on Monday.
Sophomore center Emeka Opurum stretched Auburn’s lead to a then-game-high 32 points with a pair of alley-oop slams just before the midway point of the second half, giving Auburn a 67-35 advantage with 10:40 remaining. Auburn gained its first 30-point lead of the game minutes earlier, going up 61-30 with 13:05 left on a second-chance lay-in by Hall that capped a 13-0 run.
Auburn controlled the game from the jump, opening a 30-10 lead through the first 16-plus minutes of the game before a brief 8-0 run by Merrimack cut Auburn’s lead to 12, 30-18, with 2:15 remaining in the first half. Auburn then closed out the frame with another 9-4 run of its own, taking a 39-22 advantage into the locker room at halftime.
Hall nearly got his double-double before halftime, recording nine points and eight rebounds in the opening frame to pace the Tigers. Williams-Adams also tallied nine of his 14 points in the first half, making 3 of 6 attempts from the field.
Despite Auburn’s dominant half, it was actually Merrimack’s Ernest Shelton who led all scorers with 12 points in the half on 4-of-7 shooting. Shelton aside, the rest of Merrimack’s roster shot a combined 2-of-24 from the field through the first 20 minutes.
Shelton finished with 23 points on 6-of-12 shooting (5 of 10 from 3-point range) and was the only Merrimack player to score more than five points and make more than two field goals. As a team, Merrimack finished the game 16 of 56 from the field (28.6%) and 8-for-32 (25%) from 3.
Auburn made 31 of 62 attempts from the field overall (50%) but struggled from beyond the arc by shooting just 6 of 24 (25%). Auburn dominated on the glass, outrebounding Merrimack 55-24.
