38 Days to Tip-Off - K.T. Harrell

Auburn Plainsman

As football takes on Mississippi State tonight, we look back at an Auburn over Miss State in 2014!

How are we doing this morning Auburn Basketball fans? It may be football GAMEDAY on the Plains but basketball generated some national buzz last night when Sharife Cooper announced his commitment to play at Auburn! With that said, it’s one more reason to get excited for this season of Auburn Basketball so let’s continue with our hoops countdown! With Mississippi State in town today, I felt it would be appropriate to feature an Auburn-Miss State basketball game and it’s even better that this was an Auburn win! K.T. Harrell returns to the countdown at #38!

Total Points: 26

Date: February 15, 2014

Opponent: Mississippi State

Final Score: Auburn 92 Mississippi State 82

So this is actually a game you’ll see again later in the countdown. K.T. Harrell had a huge game for Auburn and so did Chris Denson. Harrell scored 26 but he wasn’t the leading scorer on this day. Auburn scored 92 points in a game in which they went just 3-13 from 3-point range. It’s hard to imagine a team we’ve seen the last couple of years winning a game with just 3 3-pointers but this team in 2014 was able to pull off that feat. So how on earth did they score 92 points? Free throws, and LOTS of them.

As a team, Auburn was 37-41 from the free throw line. Mississippi State was 29-36 from the line and 4 Tigers fouled out of this game. As a College Basketball friend of mine always says, “Free Throws are Free,” and Auburn made the vast majority, and enough, of them in this game.

Auburn led 40-25 at halftime before a combined 109 points were scored by both teams in the 2nd half. The Tigers led by as many as 21 in this one in the 2nd half but the Bulldogs didn’t go away quietly and were able to cut the lead to single digits on a few occasions but Auburn was able to mostly maintain a double-digit lead to get the win in this one. The 92 points matched a season-high in points, tying the game in which they gave up (111!) to Northwestern State.

As for K.T., he was 6-11 from the field, 1-4 from 3-point range and 13-14 from the free throw line. He also had 3 steals and 3 rebounds in this game.

Tomorrow at #37, we’ll look back at one of my favorite games as a student at Auburn. As for today, War Eagle and #BeatState!

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/9/28/20888215/38-days-to-tip-off-k-t-harrell