AUBURN – Led by senior marksman Tay Waller, Auburn rained 3-point shots on Miles College on Friday night at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum.
Waller hit 5-of-7 3-pointers, including four in the first half, and scored 15 points. Seven Auburn players hit at least one. And the Tigers romped to an 87-40 exhibition game victory before a crowd of 3,780.
Head coach Jeff Lebo, who will start his sixth season when Niagara comes to visit next Friday night, used 15 players. Ten players played double-figure minutes.
The Tigers led 36-23 at halftime, but went on a 26-4 run to start the second half and run away.
“I thought we were shaky the first half just trying to get the jitters out and playing in front of people,” Lebo said. “I thought the second half we settled down much more. They played zone. We’ve only worked about two days against zone.”
Lucas Hargrove scored 13 points on 6-of-7 shooting and had three rebounds. Point guard DeWayne Reed scored 11 points and had five assists.
Six newcomers played for the first time. Andre Malone scored nine points and had seven rebounds. Ty Armstrong had eight points and five rebounds. Kenny Gabriel had four points and four rebounds. Earnest Ross had eight points and seven rebounds.
“I have a lot of decisions to make as a coach,” Lebo said. “I have a lot of guys sitting along that bench.”
Auburn shot 45.1 percent from the field on 32-of-71 and dominated the boards 55-35. And old problem surfaced as the Tigers were just 9-of-21 at the free throw line for 42.9 percent. Reed was 1-for-5.
