The South Carolina Gamecocks and the Auburn Tigers meet Friday in SEC Tournament college basketball action from Bridgestone Arena. Let’s get into our South Carolina vs Auburn prediction. Check back all season long for free college basketball picks at Sports Chat Place.
South Carolina Gamecocks
The Gamecocks were sitting pretty at 21-3 early last month, then took consecutive losses to Auburn and LSU. Since then South Carolina has hit a 5-1 run however, losing to Tennessee among wins over Ole Miss, Texas A&M, Florida, Mississippi State and Arkansas otherwise.
On Thursday in the tournament matchup versus Arkansas, the Gamecocks were up 38-35 going into the second half. South Carolina hit a 42-31 run the rest of the way and took the victory 80-66 to move on. Leading scorer Collin Murray-Boyles put up 24 points with seven boards and four steals in the win.
Auburn Tigers
Over on the Tigers’ side, they were sitting at a healthy 19-4 by early February. Auburn would stumble a bit on a 2-3 run from there with losses to Florida, Kentucky and Tennessee. In their last trio however, the Tigers have been on a win streak over Mississippi State, Missouri and Georgia.
Back on Saturday versus Georgia, the Tigers posted a 45-31 lead by halftime. Auburn cruised on a 47-47 run in the second half and took the win relatively easily 92-78. Leading the team in the victory effort was Denver Jones with his 21 points, three rebounds, three assists and two steals.
ANDREW’S FREE SOUTH CAROLINA VS AUBURN PREDICTION
I’ll probably lean toward Auburn in this one. The Tigers didn’t have too many issues with a middling Georgia team in their last outing, shooting 51.6 percent from the field and 11-of-23 (47.8 percent) from 3-point range. There were some hiccups, though. Auburn hit just 15-of-25 (60 percent) from the line, got out-rebounded 38-36 and had 11 turnovers for 17 Bulldogs points. The Tigers will need a much cleaner effort in this tournament game.
In the last meeting between these teams on Valentine’s Day, Auburn took a dominant home win 101-61. The Tigers hit a blistering 61 percent from the floor in that one and notched 22 team assists along the way. This one almost certainly won’t be so one-sided, but I still think Auburn controls the flow.