Auburn beats Creighton 82-70

Auburn beats Creighton 82-70 to head to the Sweet 16

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Updated: 9:08 PM CDT Mar 22, 2025

Jones and Chennai Broome. We will kindly ask coach for an opening statement and direct all questions to the student athletes. When that’s finished, they can return to the locker room and then we will return to coach for more questions. Coach, if you could please start us off. OK. I get asked *** lot How this basketball program has Become so competitive over the last 8 years. You’re looking at the reasons right here. Um, but for me, uh, I believe it, I believe it was God’s plan, um, to give us this success, success beyond what we deserve, to give us this platform, um, to give me an opportunity to just start this press conference really briefly and remind the world that Eden Alexander is still held hostage in Gaza right now. An American Held hostage And aren’t enough people in this country that know his name. So I asked the players, it was OK if I started out this press conference and just called out the name of an American. Bring the hostages home. Very proud of my team. Um, we played Auburn basketball. We played like the number one team in the country. We acted like the number one team in the country. We prepared like the number one team in the country. We talked *** little bit about game one and. Not giving the kind of effort and energy that was required and you know, not really trusting one another, sharing it and the sacrifices that need to be made tonight we put all that behind us and the guys did *** phenomenal job on both ends of the floor. Uh, my congratulations to Creighton on an incredible year. Um, you know, they have, they have *** wonderful coach got some uh. Tremendous seniors, you know, Ashworth, um, and, and the big fella just had great, great careers. Um, but this guy’s sitting right there in the middle, Denver Jones. I’ve been telling everybody he’s one of the best defensive guards in all of college basketball, and he proved it tonight with the effort and energy that he put forth and, and, and obviously making it really hard for their best player to get any kind of open looks. And this guy right here to my right is fearless. His, his seniors on this team trust him. And uh so does his coach. And that guy down at the other end, you saw, you continue to see night after night while he’s the National College Player of the Year, in my opinion. So it’s all about these guys right here. We’ll take questions for the student athletes now here in the end in the front row on the left. Hot for Denver. This is Chris Torch from the Blue Ribbon College basketball, your book. Yesterday, Creighton coach Greg McDermott said whoever guards their point guard is gonna be tired. Are you tired? Like, I didn’t gonna lie, I, I was pretty tired after the game. Uh, it was *** lot of work chasing him around the screens. But you got it done and you, you slow down their offense in the second half. Can you talk about how that got done? Uh, honestly, just putting forth effort and energy. Um, we talked, uh, all day about the, the type of team that we’re about to play and the things that we need to work on. And then coming to this game, I feel like you could feel you could feel in the air that it was that today was *** lot different than the other day. And we came out here and we proved in the second half, especially. Staying here in the front row all left. Uh, Michael Giddens, the war for Auburn, Todd, another big game. Uh, you led Auburn in scoring today. Can you talk about what was working for you so well out there on the court today? Um, just playing through our offense, um, you know, we knew the shots that we’re gonna get, so just getting in the gym, working on those types of shots, being ready for the situation. And uh my guys, uh, they helped me get the ball, get me open, they helped me find the shots that I wanted to get. Third row here on the left. Gary Graves, Associated Press, um, I guess that really, uh, Chad Baker Mazaro was kind of the scene, table setter for you in that second half when he went out with the, with the hip injury, was that when you kind of thought, I, I need to pick up the slack. I mean, everybody kind of picked up the slack on the bench for you guys. Um, definitely, uh, losing *** guy like Chad, you know, he’s playing so well. He’s *** big part of the team, so see him go down, uh, everybody knew that they had to step up and do what they had to do to get the win. Front row on the right, please. Uh, Denver, you, you came to Auburn, mostly consider it sore, and now your coach says you’re the best defensive guard in the country. Uh, could you just, I don’t wanna call it *** transformation, but just that journey, could you just talk about that and, and what it takes for you to say, OK, maybe I might not score as much, but I’m gonna help my team win this way. And just honestly, that was, that was the main reason why I came here. Uh, I came here because I wanted to win and I knew the system. Um, I knew the type players I was gonna have here at Auburn and uh coming here obviously defense, the way we play defense is challenging already. Just just transferring from another school, but um the one of the things I really want to fix, I just want to be one of the best two-way guards in the league, and that was just one of the main things that I focus on, especially this offseason. Staying on the front row on the right. You guys were able to control the boards. Only 4 offensive rebounds for them. You guys, you and, and Chaney and I think Dylan had 24 rebounds between you. They had 27. How important was that to limit those second shot opportunities for an offense like Creighton? Um, I mean, it was very important, you know, uh, I think that’s just everybody being bought in to, uh, wanting to win, you know, um, obviously. You got to contribute to be on the court, you know, so if that’s what we gotta do is rebound the basketball while guards are, you know, having great games, you know, Denver, uh, hi, Miles, uh, Chad, those guys, you know, we have to rebound the basketball in order to, you know, impact the game. I have time for two more questions for the student athletes here in the front row. Deny, uh, Michael gets war, poor Auburn. It’s not often, uh, that you don’t hit double figures in scoring. Your teammates really stepped in to help fill that void. Can you talk about the trust that you had in them to be able to help carry the load offensively tonight? For sure, you know, um, you know, I didn’t have *** good offensive game. I shot 4 to 13, um. But that’s OK, you know, uh, I came here to win. um, this season is about winning. I know my teammates got my back, and they know I have theirs. So, uh, you know, my shots weren’t falling, so I just decided to do whatever I can to impact winning and I’ll let, you know, everybody else do the scoring. And the last one in the 4th row on the left, Ryan as the NBC 13 in Birmingham for July. What does it mean to have someone step up like to hide the last two games 16 and 23 down the stretch of sending the Sweet 16, bro. Now, um. You know, he’s *** special uh freshman, you know, uh, he. Uh, no, he’s *** special freshman, you know, um, he understands the game, you know, uh, he’s learned *** lot from the kind of the older guys and he knows when, when the time that we kind of need him to step up and, uh, he steps up to the challenge, you know, uh, *** lot of the times for us, but, uh, you know, that’s what would you expect out of *** guy like him. Thanks for your time, guys. We appreciate it. Congrats. Happy birthday mom. Have to get that out there. OK, questions for coach. Uh, 4th row here on the left. Ryan and it’s the NBC 13 in Birmingham. Bruce, I know the job’s not done yet, but we’ve talked about this getting the second week. What does that mean to you to get to this Atlanta regional? Well, I mean, as I said yesterday, um, uh, Thursday was the first NCAA win for *** lot of our team, *** lot of our guys. We haven’t been past the first weekend since 2019, um, when we, when we got to the Final Four. So, Being the number one overall seed, you know, obviously it would have been really disappointing if we didn’t do it again, you know, we got upset by Miami as the two seed *** couple of years ago with *** great team with Walker Kessler and Jabari Smith, um. But we played *** team in Creighton tonight that is as good as the teams that we’ll see in Atlanta, and whether it’s, you know, whether it was Michigan or Texas A&M or, I’m not even sure who the other two are, Michigan State, who does Michigan State play? New Mexico, OK. Um, there’ll be great teams in Atlanta, but, but we, but we knew that Creighton was gonna be as good as anybody we would see on the road to the Final Four. I, you know, I, I, I feel that way. So hopefully this is something that we can build on. Here in the front on the left. Uh, coach, he did, uh, he got hurt early into the second half, but Chad Bicker Mazzara scored 12 points in 6.5 minutes to get you started. Can you talk about the effort that he gave you, uh, in *** game that you won ultimately about 12 points? Yeah, I mean, uh, Chad was being guarded by, by, by *** freshman and, uh, you know, Jackson McAndrew, who had *** great, great offensive game. But Jack, but Chad had the advantage, um, and we were able to get him in *** ball screen action where he was able to turn corners and get downhill and, and, and score the basketball, um, you know, and, and I thought in the first half when we weren’t shooting *** very good percentage, the guys were going downhill. And, and, and, and I don’t want to say they were trying to draw fouls, but we were winding up being on the floor and the fouls weren’t called and that was not good. I thought in the second half, we stopped that and we just went down there and try to get buckets and uh and, and Chad, you know, obviously, he’s *** buck 75 soaking wet and um you know, he’s got *** bony *** and so when he lands on the ground, you know, bam, he’s gonna, it’s gonna, it’s, it’s wood on bone. And so he probably got *** pretty good bruise, hopefully that’s all it is. Front row on the right. Bruce, especially to in Denver, got downhill, got to the lane and scored. How, how important was that to, to be able to take the ball to the basket with those two guys, especially. But when you go up against drop coverage, obviously you’re going to be able to get *** ball screen and you’re gonna be able to turn corners. Great does *** great job of funneling everybody to the, to the rim to the shot blocker, combination of we try to put *** body on the shot blocker on the backside so we couldn’t rotate over. And then when he did rotate over. Those guys, particularly Taha, Chad, Denver had *** big bucket late, uh, we’re able to get in the lane and make, make, make buckets and then we had some backside rebounding there to take advantage of the shot blocking. So it was *** very simple game plan. Um, Steven Pearl had to scout tonight, and he had an absolutely massive game plan, um, particularly Steven was focused on the defensive end, just, just, just really, really good. I know it didn’t look like in the first banging all those threes, but I thought, I thought we obviously had *** really good offensive team to 70 points and, and, and to hold them to, you know, the shooting percentage in the second half of 42%, 23% from three was huge. And then Mike Berger master, my offensive coordinator. We had *** real good feel for depending upon. We’re the big fellow who he was guarding about what actions that we wanted to run, uh, to be able to get open shots and be able to get downhill front row on the right. Chad Winch with the Barn Media Group, group. Coach, uh, how does having *** core group of seniors give you an advantage in *** win like this? Well, I think it, it’s always uh an advantage when you have older guys, but my older guys haven’t been here before. You know, Creighton had ***, Creighton’s been the Sweet 16 for the last 5 years. Those those guys on that team have been in the Sweet 16 for 3 or 4 the last 5 years. I don’t have anybody on our team. And one of the best performers in the second half was *** freshman. So, some of that experience thing, um, it’s important, but it wasn’t the factor tonight. Third row here on the right, sorry. Yeah, Bruce Bba with ESPN. Uh, what changed in the second half, uh, keeping the point guard and McAndrew, they went off in the first half. Y’all seem to limit them in the second half. What did y’all do defensively to make sure that that the ball got got out of their hands? You know, we, we, we really worked harder at getting our bigs up to the level. Like we just, even when we talked about in the first half, our bigs were still playing too far back from their men and not able to get out there and impact those ball screens and keep creating on the perimeter. I would say fatigue could have been *** bit of *** factor in the sense that the way we guard kind of makes Creighton have to work really hard to get open and to get looks and it does take its toll *** little bit. I thought our physicality on the rebounding and our physicality just being, being, um, you know, bodies on bodies. I thought, I think, I think they were *** little fatigued in the second half. 3rd row here on the left. Yeah, I kind of following up on that, um, first, Gary Graves Associated Press, but following up on that, what was the one thing that you saw in the, in the first half that, I, I guess in the absence of, of your shooting, you know, you, you, you were getting rebounds and stuff. Did you just kind of tell them, you know, just, just go to the boards harder and And good things will happen on the other end. The halftime talk was easy, guys. They’ve banged 9 3s. We’ve missed *** couple of inside shots. We’re shooting 30% and we’re down. What *** bucket. Are you kidding me? Creighton’s got to go into the halftime going how are we only have 2 points. We shot well, we executed well, we made 9 3s, we should be winning by double digits. But we made some offense out of our defense. And we were, we were more dominant on the boards, particularly got some big offensive rebound baskets. So we found *** way to try to, you know, manufacture enough points to still be in the game. I, I thought we were in great shape at halftime, considering how well Creighton played and the margin was what it was. I’m trying to get 3 quick ones in here, front row on the left. Yeah, Bruce, Ed Peak, CBS News, uh, they wanted to know and I already sent that piece about the hostages. I did, forgive me for not doing my homework on this, but what made you say that and got you to, do you have friends or is it anything that you? I think what, what made me say it is again, it’s, it, it, it starts, you know, with, with my faith, and it starts with the answering the question, why, why has God blessed Auburn and this basketball team? The way he has all season long and honestly it’s I think put us in *** platform of, you know, in this case right now myself as *** Jewish American who loves his country more than anything else in the world. My grandfather came over at 11 years old in 1929. He became *** citizen when he was 32 years old. It was the greatest day of his life. This Jewish American loves his country more than anything else. At the same time over in Israel, that’s our ancestral homeland for the Jewish people and it’s under attack. It’s under attack, it’s under siege, and all it wants to do is live in peace with its neighbors. And you know what, there are some Arab countries that are actually wanting peace with Israel right now. But there’s *** segment of the population that is there in the Middle East, that has been doing nothing but attacking Israel for 80, 85 years. October 7th was the worst day since the Holocaust for the Jewish people. And they say they want to do it again and again and again. Um, we have Americans that are held hostage in Gaza right now. It’s unacceptable, and President Trump has called it out and he said, If they would just free the hostages, the killing would stop. Free the hostages and the killing will stop, and that’s up to Hamas. We have time for one last question here in the front. Thank you for the questions. Thank you. Um, coach Michael gets more for Auburn. This was the first game this season that Creighton lost when they shot better than 36%. They were 11-0 in shooting 36% or better from three. they shot 44% tonight. Can you talk about the efforts to try to run them off the three point line, uh, and And continuing to play Auburn basketball when they were shooting so well from the perimeter. Yeah, I, I thought they, they banged some shots. They, they, they got some 50-50 balls and some inside out things, like two or three of them were just sort of not necessarily offensive sets. They got some stuff in transition, um, and, um, you know, and, and we, we recognize that they’re making 12 threes and uh um they got their 17 assist average, um, but obviously for us to be able to score 82. Um, and shoot 60% in the second half. I thought, I thought we controlled the game in the second half with our offense, um, and, uh. Again, like we’ve been playing all year long, just sharing it and and and and and and uh coach Rick Dermott told me, told me after the game, he says, you know, he recognized you *** really good team, so do they. And our guys played up to their ability today. I’m very proud of them. Thanks for your time, coach.

Auburn came back from being down at halftime to win 82-70 against Creighton in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.The team now heads to the Sweet 16, where they will play Michigan in Atlanta. The Sweet 16 games will be played on March 27 and 28. The game:The latest updates are at the top:SECOND HALFSCORE: 74-67, Auburn. TIME: 2:11 leftCreighton’s Jason Green fouls out of the gameSCORE: 72-63, Auburn. TIME: 2:30 leftChad Baker-Mazara is getting back into the game.Creighton goes on a 7-0 run. SCORE: 68-61, Auburn. TIME: 4:12Creighton scores first points in 6 minutes. SCORE: 68-57, Auburn. TIME: 5:02 leftAuburn goes on 18-4 run in just over 6 minutesDylan Cardwell being treated on the sideline for what appears to be a leg cramp.Auburn takes the largest lead it has had all game, 66-54. TIME: 7:36.SCORE: 62-54, Auburn. TIME: 10:00 leftChad Baker-Mazara returns to the bench with ice. Announcers said it is a right hip bruise and he is still being evaluated.SCORE: 56-50, Auburn. TIME: 12:33 left Auburn’s Chad Baker-Mazara leaves the game limping, heads to the locker room.SCORE: 45-42, Auburn. TIME: 15:58 leftAuburn gets first points on the board to take the lead in the second half. SCORE: 38-37 HALFTIME SCORE: 37-35, CreightonFIRST HALF Auburn blocks a shot to bring it back and score, taking the lead 29-28. TIME: 4:46.SCORE: 25-23, Creighton. TIME: 7:33 leftSCORE: 15-15. TIME: 11:59 leftCreighton and Auburn continue to go back and forth with the lead. SCORE: 13-12, Auburn. TIME: 13:30 leftAuburn holds C-reighton to a shot clock violation. SCORE: 7-6, Auburn. Time: 15:32 leftAuburn is first on the boardBEFORE THE GAMEStay updated on the latest sports stories with the WVTM 13 app. You can download it here.

LEXINGTON, Ky. —Auburn came back from being down at halftime to win 82-70 against Creighton in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The team now heads to the Sweet 16, where they will play Michigan in Atlanta. The Sweet 16 games will be played on March 27 and 28.