Vanderbilt @ Auburn preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 16, 2019 ) Auburn 64, Vanderbilt 53

Fifth-ranked Auburn opened its SEC season with an impressive road victory and looks to remain one of two undefeated teams in the country when it returns home to face Vanderbilt on Wednesday night in another league battle. The Tigers won for the 25th time in 26 games, dating back to last season, after outlasting host Mississippi State 80-68 on Saturday as senior guard J’Von McCormick poured in a career-high 28 points.

“He took over,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl told reporters of McCormick, who leads the team in assists (5.5). “We gave him the keys to the car and he drove it. He’s leading our team. He’s leading off the court, he’s leading on the court. He’s leading with his work ethic.” Pearl said he would learn a lot about his club after facing the physicality of Mississippi State and the Tigers held their own on the boards while limiting the Bulldogs to 33.8 percent shooting from the field and will have another challenge against Aaron Nesmith - one of the nation’s top scorers (23.4 per game). Vanderbilt coughed up a 15-point lead in the final six-plus minutes of regulation before falling 92-81 in overtime against SMU on Saturday and coach Jerry Stackhouse said his team would learn from the loss as it prepares for an SEC opener. “We’re playing some young guys that haven’t really had experience at playing at this level and what it takes to finish off games,” Stackhouse told reporters. “It feels like we get a little happy at moments, and we have to understand that these guys are going to continue to come at you. The teams that we’re about to start playing, they’re going to continue to play so we got to find a way to take a challenge a bit more.”

TIME: 9 p.m. ET. TV: SEC Network

ABOUT VANDERBILT (8-5, 0-0 SEC): Nesmith entered the week first in the SEC and fifth in the nation in scoring while connecting on 51.4 percent from 3-point range to rank second in the country after draining a career-high eight from long range to score 29 versus SMU. Junior guard Saben Lee averages 15.8 points and is Nesmith’s main setup man with a team-high 5.5 assists per game, but was held to seven points against SMU on 3-of-8 shooting. Freshman guard Scotty Pippen Jr., the son of the Hall of Famer by the same name, is averaging 13.8 points over the past four games to push his season mark to 11.3.

ABOUT AUBURN (13-0, 1-0): Senior Samir Doughty leads the team in scoring (16.3) and the Tigers have continued to win games with the 6-4 guard averaging just 10.7 points on 11-of-33 shooting from the field the last three outings. Freshman Isaac Okoro (12.9 points per game, 57 percent from the field overall) showed no fear by scoring 14 in his SEC debut Saturday and Pearl told reporters of the 6-6 forward: “He ain’t no freshman. He was a man out there, made man-sized plays.” McCormick averages 11.9 points and senior center Austin Wiley adds 10.8 to go along with a team-best 9.2 rebounds per game.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Vanderbilt freshman F Dylan Disu is averaging nine points the last three games after totaling 11 in the previous four contests.

2. Auburn senior F Danjel Purifoy is averaging 14 points the last two games after managing five per contest in the previous four.

3. The Tigers won the last two meetings, including a 64-53 victory at Vanderbilt last February.

PREDICTION: Auburn 78, Vanderbilt 66