AUBURN CAPTURES ROMAN LEGENDS CLASSIC PRESENTED BY OLD TRAPPER
November 26, 2019
No. 18 Auburn won its first in-season tournament championship since 2004 with a 79-65 win over Richmond in the title game of the Roman Legends Classic presented by Old Trapper.
“Our guys came to Auburn to make history,” Pearl said the win at Barclays Center. “That was important to our team.”
Samir Doughty scored 22 points to lead the Tigers. Austin Wiley (right), who was named the tournament MVP, scored 18 points. He joined Doughty on the all-tournament team, along with Wisconsin’s Nate Reuvers, and Richmond’s Jacob Gilyard and Grant Golden.
Daniel Purifoy chipped in with 13 for Auburn, which improved to 7-0 overall, and 3-1 in four all-time meetings against the Spiders.
Golden led the Spiders with 14. Gilyard and Nick Sherod finished with 12 each.
“I just thought we didn’t have quite enough energy for shot-making to hang in longer in the second half,” Richmond coach Chris Mooney said. “They’re a very good team.”
Trailing 35-34 at the half, Auburn opened the second half with an 11-4 run in a span of 4:27 to take a 45-39 lead. The advantage grew to 53-41 on Jamal Johnson’s layup at 13:10.
After Richmond cut the deficit to 56-49, Wiley finished the next two possessions with a two-handed dunk and a tip-in, causing Mooney to call a time out.
“Hats off to them,” Mooney said.
Auburn’s lead grew to as much as 22 in the final minutes.
In the consolation game, New Mexico rebounded from a loss to Auburn the previous night to earn the Lobos their first win over a Power 5 team since 2012 in defeating Wisconsin, 59-50.
JaQuan Lyle scored 14 points while a trio of Lobos – Carlton Bragg, JJ Caldwell, and Zane Martin – tallied 12 points apiece. Lyle also led UNM in rebounds with a season-high nine boards, followed by Bragg who posted six and Caldwell who collected five.
On the night, the Lobos outshot Wisconsin 44.0 – 34.0 percent from the field including a 23.1 – 7.7 percent advantage from 3-point range. The Lobo defense held the Badgers to just two threes on the night out of 26 fired from behind the arc.
Wisconsin was led by Nate Reuvers, who registered 16 points going 7-for-9 from the floor with five rebounds.
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In the Green Bay Subregional, Colgate’s Jordan Burns set a Legends Classic record by scoring 40 points to lead the Raiders to a 99-81 win over Green Bay. Colgate went 2-0 in the Subregional.
Burns (left) was 14-of-23 from the field, including 8-of-14 from three, and 4-of-4 from the line. Needless to say, he was named the MVP of the Subregional. Tucker Richardson netted 18 points and Will Rayman added 14.
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