College Basketball

Georgia rallies in 2nd half, tops Auburn 96-84 in SEC opener (Dec 29, 2016)

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 6:55 p.m. ET

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AP

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) Georgia took Auburn's best punch in the first half, managing to stay within striking distance despite the Tigers shooting lights out.

Once the second half got going, Georgia had no trouble finding lanes and scoring at will, relying on its two biggest weapons to spark a couple of big runs.

Yante Maten scored 31 points and J.J. Frazier scored 27 as Georgia rolled to a come-from-behind 96-84 win over Auburn in both teams' SEC opener at Auburn Arena.

Maten shot 10 of 19 from the field and converted all nine of his free throw attempts. He also had eight rebounds in 27 minutes. Frazier was 9 of 16 from the field and 9 of 10 from the free throw line. He had five steals in 35 minutes.

''Maten and Frazier were the two guys that could beat us,'' Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said, ''and those were the two guys that did beat us.''

With 7:27 left, Georgia (9-4, 1-0) began a 12-0 run to build an 86-76 lead and pull away. Maten, who scored 17 of his points in the second half, had six points over the 3:13 span. Frazier added two layups.

''You have to give Auburn credit. They're a good team. We just had to play uphill for the most part,'' Frazier said. ''Once we got it down to where we could get in striking distance, we made a run.''

Auburn (10-3, 0-1) shot 56.3 percent from the field and 50 percent (7 of 14) from downtown in the first half before heading into the locker room with a 51-43 lead. Georgia rallied in the second half, using a 13-2 run over a four-minute span midway through the half to get to within 68-67.

''We knew what the defense was giving us,'' Maten said. ''We knew the weaknesses of their defense. We just tried our best to exploit it.''

BIG PICTURE

Georgia, which rebounded from an 86-79 loss at Oakland on Dec. 23, now leads the all-time series 93-91. Jordan Harris added 12 points and Juwan Parker had 10.

Auburn had its four-game winning streak snapped. The Tigers shot 7 of 14 from 3-point range in the first half, but only 2 of 12 in the second half.

Mustapha Heron shot 7 of 13 from the field, including 4 of 7 from 3-point range, for 19 points to lead Auburn. Danjel Purifoy added 13 points and six rebounds for the Tigers.

QUOTABLE

Frazier, on Georgia winning its SEC opener: ''We always say that the first win is always the hardest one. For us, getting the first one is always key. We always say, `At midnight, we have to flush it and move on.' We never dwell on a win or a loss. We just have to move on and play well.''

Pearl, on Auburn struggling to contain Maten and Frazier: ''I don't think I developed a good enough game plan to get the ball out of their hands and get them covered, and our kids certainly weren't able to do it with what we presented them,'' Pearl said. ''And unfortunately what happens is you just get exposed.

''Not being able to get stops got us disrupted, and we panicked a little bit. But they're literally scoring almost every possession. It's hard not to panic.''

UP NEXT

Auburn tries to get back on track on Wednesday at Vanderbilt, which opened SEC play against LSU on Thursday. The Commodores, who are 5-1 in Memorial Gymnasium this season, have defeated Auburn 12 consecutive times dating back to 2007.

Georgia looks to keep rolling as it hosts South Carolina on Wednesday. The Gamecocks, who are 10-2, will be playing in their SEC opener.

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