Auburn Bows Out In Round of 32 After Blowout Loss to Clemson

The Auburn Tigers season came to a disappointing end Sunday in San Diego.

They were blown out by Clemson 84-53 in the second round of the Midwest region, falling a game short of what would’ve been the school’s fifth-ever Sweet Sixteen appearance.

CLEMSON OWNS THE BATTLE OF THE TIGERS!

(5) Clemson obliterates (4) Auburn 84-53 and advances to the #Sweet16. #MarchMadness pic.twitter.com/C6xEAScPE1

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 19, 2018

Tale of Two Tigers

Auburn put up its worst shooting performance of the season, going just 25.8% from the field. Even worse, they shot just over 21% from beyond the arc (7-32). Dynamic scorer Mustapha Heron was limited to just 12 points of 3-for-10 shooting.

On the opposite side of the court, the Tigers from Clemson fared much better than the Tigers from Auburn.

Clemson had three players score at least 16 points. Senior guard Gabe DeVoe paced all scorers with 22 points, which included six made threes, five rebounds and five assists. Junior forward Elijah Thomas added a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds. Junior guard Marcquise Reed contributed 16 points.

“Dominating performance by Clemson,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “They played great. They’ve been playing really well. They’ve got great guard play and [Elijah] Thomas is a factor… they dominated us.”

For Clemson head coach Brad Brownell, the performance was just the latest example from a team he thought was special from the beginning.

“We talked about it at the beginning of the year, I thought this team could be really good,” Brownell. “The way we played here in San Diego was at an extremely high level.”

Next up for Clemson, they’ll take on Kansas on Friday night in the Sweet Sixteen.