Tyrece Radford may as well have been a ghost.
The Texas A&M guard was an unabashed problem for Auburn on Wednesday night, and every made basket and trip to the free-throw line by the 6-foot-2 veteran provided a haunting reminder of one of Auburn’s biggest weaknesses this season. Slowing down high-scoring guards has been a recurring issue for Auburn in each of its losses this season, and Wednesday night’s performance by Radford was just the latest example.
Radford scored a game-high 30 points in Texas A&M’s 79-63 throttling of No. 15 Auburn, as the Tigers’ 28-game home winning streak — the longest active streak in the nation entering the night — and their five-game overall winning streak were thwarted at Neville Arena.
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“He’s a great player,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “Great athlete. One of the best athletes in the country, really. Big, strong, physical and (had) a big game. Played great. I just didn’t have anybody who could stay in front of him.”
Radford, a senior who spent his first two seasons at Virginia Tech before transferring to Texas A&M last season, has been the Aggies’ second-leading scorer this season. Against Auburn, though, he went off.
He was 8-of-17 from the field, including 3-of-7 from deep, and was aggressive in attacking the rim and getting to the line, where he made 11 of his 12 free-throw attempts. Radford, who added a game-high nine rebounds, scored 16 of those points in the first half and took charge for Texas A&M as it withstood a quick start from Auburn before taking control of the game.
After Auburn took a 10-2 lead in the opening minutes, Texas A&M took a timeout. Radford scored the Aggies’ next five points, knocking down a 3-pointer out of the timeout and then drawing a foul on another 3-point attempt on the following possession. He missed the first free throw—his only miss from the charity stripe all night—and connected on the next two to make it 10-7. He then scored 11 of Texas A&M’s final 19 points of the half, as the Aggies outscored the Tigers 19-5 over the final eight minutes of the first half.
That turned a one-point game into a 15-point halftime deficit for Auburn on its homecourt.
“I feel like we had to commit a little bit more,” Auburn forward Chris Moore said. “Our coaches gave us some great scout before the game saying he (Radford) was a left-handed driver and everything. But I feel like we didn’t’ commit as a team and that’s kind of what made him have a good night tonight.”
Radford’s 30 points were one shy of his career high of 31, which he set earlier this season against DePaul. Eight of his points came on layups, while he added a jumper in the paint plus another handful of drives to the basket that drew contact and produced trips to the free-throw line.
It was a masterful effort from the Texas A&M guard and the type of performance that has been troublesome for Auburn this season. While the Tigers have been one of the nation’s best defensive teams this season, they’ve struggled with high-scoring guards in each of their four losses.
Along with Radford’s big effort, Auburn was on the wrong end of big-time performances from Memphis’ Kendric Davis and USC’s Boogie Ellis back in December, as well as Georgia’s Terry Roberts earlier in January.
In the loss to Memphis, which was Auburn’s first of the season, Davis dropped 27 points on 9-of-19 shooting, including 7-of-7 from the free-throw line. Davis added nine rebounds and six assists, and while he also committed five turnovers, Auburn struggled to slow him offensively in an 82-73 loss in Atlanta. His 27 points were, at the time, a season high. The 5-foot-11 journeyman — who started his career at TCU and spent couple seasons at SMU before coming to Memphis this year — is currently averaging 21.2 points per game this season, and his performance against Auburn was one of 10 career games of at least 27 points for him.
Ellis, who started his career at Memphis before transferring to USC, scored a career-high 28 for the Trojans during Auburn’s loss in Los Angeles as part of the team’s two-game West Coast swing. The 6-foot-3 guard, who scored 10 in a loss to Auburn while at Memphis two years ago, shot 9-of-15 from the field and was 8-of-10 from the line against Pearl’s team this time around while leading USC to a 74-71 win.
During Auburn’s first loss in SEC play, Georgia’s Terry Roberts tied his career high with 26 points against the Tigers. He shot 8-of-16 and was 9-of-12 from the free-throw line in a 76-64 win for the Bulldogs.
Radford won’t be the last daunting guard Auburn will face this season — though the Tigers will see him again in College Station, Texas, in a couple weeks — but Pearl’s team knows it needs to do better in those types of matchups to avoid more results like the one Auburn was handed Wednesday at Neville Arena.
“I just feel like we need to lock in a little bit more on our scout,” Moore said. “We’ve got to trust our coaches a little bit more. We just have to commit, basically. We’ve got to commit as a team. Trust our scout and execute.”
Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.
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