14 Days to Tip-Off - Tay Waller

AL.com

TWO Weeks to Tip-Off!!!

We are now just TWO weeks away from the start of College Basketball season! Today, we start looking at the 29 point games which happened 8 times over the last 10 years. We’ll start by looking back at a game in the midst of an incredible 3 game stretch.

We wrote about Tay Waller a few weeks ago and this was the 2nd of 3 straight games in which he scored at least 26 points. The 3rd game in that stretch will be talked about in a few days. Unfortunately on that night in Oxford, Waller’s 2nd straight 29 point game wasn’t enough for the Tigers to get the W.

Total Points: 29

Date: February 24, 2019

Opponent: at Ole Miss

Final Score: Ole Miss 85 Auburn 75

Waller was 9-12 from the field, 8-11 from 3-point range and 3-4 from the free-throw line. Waller came out of the gate on fire drilling a trio of 3-pointers in the game’s first 2:45 forcing an early Ole Miss timeout as Auburn built a 9-2 lead. Two minutes later, Waller would hit his 4th 3 of the game to put Auburn up 14-7. After a pair of empty possessions, Waller hit yet another 3 to give Auburn an early 10 point lead. Waller’s 6th 3 of the game would come with 5:23 left in the half to give Auburn a 27-17 lead. Behind Waller’s 6 1st half 3-pointers, Auburn went to the locker room up 34-22.

But unfortunately for Auburn as a former Alabama coach would say, this game was a “tale of two halves.”

In the 2nd half, Waller would make his only 2-pointer of the game with 14:37 left which put Auburn up 46-34. Two minutes later, Waller would hit his 7th 3-pointer of the game to put Auburn up 52-40. After a pair of free throws from Waller with 9:34 left, Auburn led 58-45.

And then the wheels came off.

Over the next 4 minutes, Ole Miss went on a 15-2 run to cut the deficit to 62-60 with 5 minutes left. Ole Miss would take the lead 66-65 with 4:28 left before Waller went 1-2 from the line to tie the game at 66. Waller would make his final basket with 3:40 left, his 8th 3-pointer of the game and that gave Auburn a 69-68 lead. Ole Miss would then go an 11-1 run and Waller would end up fouling out of the game with 1:19 left as Tay was called for 3 fouls in a 74 second stretch late in the game. Ole Miss made 9-10 in the game’s last 2:33 and ended up winning a game by 10 in which they trailed by double digits for a large part of the game.

Tomorrow at #13, we’ll feature a game from the 2014 season.

from College and Magnolia - All Posts https://www.collegeandmagnolia.com/2019/10/22/20926295/14-days-to-tip-off-tay-waller