Tip-Off Countdown: #97 Auburn 85 Eastern Kentucky 64

Marvin Gentry-USA TODAY Sports

Mustapha Heron’s big 2nd half allowed Auburn to pull away from the Colonels in the 2nd half for a 3-0 start to the 2016-2017 season!

November 17, 2016 - Auburn Arena

Mustapha Heron is one of the most highly touted recruits of the Bruce Pearl era and a clear sign that things were going to be different for Auburn Basketball. We saw that on display on this Thursday night in Auburn.

Heron led the Tigers with 24 points and had 10 rebounds for his first career double-double in an 85-64 over the Eastern Kentucky Colonels in the 2nd game of the Cancun Challenge.

After the Tigers led 10-2 early, the Colonels responded and would lead most of the 1st half. Danjel Purifoy got the Tigers off to a good start as Auburn led 37-34 at halftime by scoring 13 of his 16 points. Danjel also had 8 rebounds in this contest.

Auburn led just 48-46 with 14 minutes left before finishing the game on a 37-18 run.

As for Heron, he did most of his scoring in the 2nd half, where he made all 5 of his shot attempts and scored 15 of his 24 points in a half where Auburn outscored Eastern Kentucky 48-30.

We don’t talk about Ronnie Johnson enough and what he meant to the program but I would have loved to have seen him for more than 1 year on the Plains. After spending time at both Purdue and Houston, Johnson was an important grad transfer addition to the 2016-2017 roster. He gave Auburn a veteran presence off the bench and efficiently ran the point when Jared was out of the game. I say this because Ronnie Johnson had a big 2nd half in this contest, scoring all of his 13 points in the 2nd half. He also went over 1,000 career points in this game.

Here are the game highlights!

Tomorrow at #96, we head South of the Border for a thriller in Cancun!

War Eagle!

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