AUBURN, Ala. — DeWayne Reed scored 23 points and Quantez Robertson added 19 — both career highs — to lead Auburn to an 87-82 victory over UT Martin in the opening round of the NIT on Wednesday night.
Reed made five 3-pointers for the Tigers (23-11), who hit a season-high 14 from beyond the arc in their first postseason game since 2003. Auburn faces Tulsa on Friday night.
Lester Hudson, the nation’s No. 2 scorer, led the Skyhawks (22-10) with 33 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. The Ohio Valley Conference regular season champions were making their first Division I postseason appearance.
UT Martin trailed by 15 points midway through the second half, but made it tight at the end.
Auburn hit six of 10 free throws over the final 52 seconds to seal the win.
The Tigers had revived NCAA tournament hopes by winning nine of 10 games, but didn’t receive an invite after losing to Tennessee in the SEC semifinals. They got a scare despite dominating early.
The Skyhawks pulled to within 77-72 on Hudson’s long 3-pointer over Frankie Sullivan with 1:34 left.
Reed answered with a short jumper in heavy traffic. He then grabbed a loose ball away from Hudson and hit Robertson for an alley-oop to push the lead back to nine.
Hudson struck again, hitting all three free throws after getting fouled on a 3-point attempt with 54 seconds left. Olajide Hay’s putback cut the lead back to five with 39 seconds remaining but Reed and Robertson put the game away at the line.
Robertson had six rebounds, six assists and four steals for Auburn, which made 14 of 29 3s. Korvotney Barber added 10 points and eight boards while Frankie Sullivan also scored 10.
Reuben Clayton and Benzor Simmons each had 12 points for UT Martin,
But the Tigers went to the line 35 times and made 21, compared to just 11-of-14 for UT Martin.
Auburn hit four 3-pointers during an 18-2 run to build a 19-point lead late in the first half even with Barber and Tay Waller on the bench with two fouls apiece. Auburn managed to contain Hudson for nearly 17 minutes. Then he set up one 3-pointer with a drive and dish, hit two of his own and had a steal and dunk in a whirlwind 91-second spurt.
Auburn coach Jeff Lebo, a former Tennessee Tech coach in the OVC, is now 10-0 against UT Martin.
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Comments » 5
danapurt writes:
Lester Hudson is an amazing player. Ive had the opportunity of seeing him play several times here at UTM. Even though I go to the school in the west, my heart is still with Knoxville. It really makes me wonder why such a great athlete like Hudson didnt land in K town or Memphis. I dont have any background knowledge on him so im not sure if he was highly recruited or not.
SPEVol writes:
Hudson's history has been widely documented. His grades in high school were so poor that he was only able to showcase himself in 1 full season, then ended up dropping out of HS. He then got his GED and went to Southwest Community College here in Memphis to get his core classes. Through his high school coach and others, he got into school at Martin, but was academically ineligible 2 years ago, paid his own way to stay there. Then last year, came out of nowhere, had a quadruple double, averaging over 25 ppg. last year. His supporting cast seemed weaker overall this year, but still a great year for UTM. Hope to see Hudson in the league next year. He's really an inspiration for someone who didn't give up his dream.
pdhuff#552644 writes:
Good info.
chad_t31 writes:
Not only were his grades not that great in high school, but he also dropped out because he was told he couldn't play basketball. Obviously the kid has made some mistakes along the way but he has tried to correct those mistakes. I, too, would like to see him succeed at the next level, however, his size and age(26?) may play important factors.
givehim6 writes:
I know a few people have been really cutting down on the SEC espacily after USC went down, but there are still some good SEC teams out there going strong. So good luck Auburn and UK.
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