Tip-Off Countdown: #48 (8) Auburn 82 Dayton 72

John Reed-USA TODAY Sports

A Career Night for Bryce Brown!!

December 8, 2018 - Auburn Arena

Throughout his illustrious Auburn career, Bryce Brown had some incredible 3-point shooting performances. But what he did on a Saturday night before final exams against Dayton was his best overall game in an Auburn uniform as a scorer.

Looking back at this, it’s pretty surreal that Auburn Arena hosted 2 NBA lottery picks from schools that normally don’t produce lottery picks over a 2 week span. We’ll talk about Ja Morant’s Murray State Racers in a few days but Dayton had an impressive freshman who served as their 6th man at the time in Obi Toppin who is expected to be a Top 5-10 pick in next month’s draft along with Auburn’s Isaac Okoro.

The Tigers would start fast, building an early 17-4 lead with 6:30 into the game, capped by a steal and transition 3 from Jared Harper.

Moments later, an Austin Wiley block would lead to more transition basketball leading to an alley-oop Point Guard to Point Guard as Jared Harper found J’Von McCormick for a dunk to send the Jungle into a frenzy.

The Flyers would settle down and get within 4 midway through the half but the Tigers were able to hang onto the lead and led 37-29 at the Under 4 timeout. And that’s when Bryce Brown took over.

Brown would knock down his first 3 of the game, to give Auburn a 40-29 lead with 2:29 to go. After another Flyers turnover, Brown would knock down another 3 on the next possession. More good defense, started by a steal from Chuma Okeke, would lead to more transition as a high pass from Okeke to Harper was handled and thrown cross court to Brown for another 3 as Auburn built a 46-29 lead with 1:12 to go in the half. Dayton would hit a 3 with 11 seconds left but that was plenty of time for Bryce to run down the court and hit 1 more 3 before intermission.

Bryce Brown is on pic.twitter.com/1Fx0uG3rKh

— Skye Underwood (@SkyeUnderwood) December 9, 2018

Brown’s 4th 3, all in the last 2:30 of the half was part of a 22 point 1st half and Auburn led 51-32 at halftime.

Brown’s 5th 3 came 4 minutes into the second half as the Tigers led 58-42. Auburn would sit on 58 for awhile and Dayton went on a 10-0 run to cut the lead down to 6 before a 3 from Samir Doughty stopped the Flyers run. After a basket from Obi Toppin, Brown would come down and knock home his 6th 3 of the game to put Auburn back up 10 and give him 30 points on the night (at that point).

Auburn would go on an 8-0 run moments later, fueled by a pair of 3s from Jared Harper to lead 74-56 with 9:50 to go. The offense for Auburn would struggle in the final 10 minutes though and Dayton worked their way back into the game as a result.

Dayton would go on another 10-0 run to cut the deficit down to 8 but Brown would hit a jumper for his final points of the night with 4 minutes to go to put Auburn up 78-68.

A pair of dunks by Austin Wiley would put the icing on the cake in this one as Auburn moved to 8-1 on the season with a hard fought win over Dayton.

Bryce Brown had a career high 34 points on 10-18 shooting, 6-13 from 3 and 8-9 from the free throw line. The 34 point performance was the highest scoring game from any Auburn Tiger since Toney Douglas scored 38 back in 2004.

Jared Harper had 20 points and 7 assists and was 4-7 from 3. Samir Doughty had 8 points, 10 rebounds and 6 assists and Austin Wiley had 8 points, 7 rebounds and 5 blocks.

Here are the highlights!

And one more set of highlights for you all.... (that’s me in the thumbnail).

Watch us do what we do. #WarEagle x #UnfinishedBusiness pic.twitter.com/YHqIBe5lBF

— Auburn Basketball (@AuburnMBB) December 9, 2018

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