Auburn's Miles Kelly drops 23 in March Madness win, continues success in Rupp Arena
Miles Kelly is a big fan of Rupp Arena. In two games played at the Lexington, Kentucky arena, Kelly has scored a combined 53 points. He scored 30 points against the Kentucky Wildcats on March 1 in the 94-78 win for Auburn. In that game, he connected on nine shots from beyond the three-point line. That success continued Thursday in the Tigers first round win over Alabama State. He hit seven three-pointers in the game and led the Tigers with 23 points in the 83-63 victory.
Kelly started the game on fire by hitting his first four three-point attempts. If he had any nervousness for his first NCAA Tournament game, he did not show it. Kelly reflected on the quick start while talking to the media after the game.
“It's everything I dreamed of. It's great," Kelly said of his performance. "My teammates did a great job of finding me, and all I had to do was knock it down.”
His shots were within the flow of the offense, and his teammates were looking for him. “Just credit to my teammates for giving me open looks,” Kelly added.
When Alabama State narrowed the Auburn lead down to one point at 32-31, the Tigers went on a 9-0 run to close the first half. Up 34-31, Kelly hit a three to give the Tigers a 37-31 advantage with 1:04 left until halftime. “It was huge for us and for our energy. At that point in the game, our energy was kind of low,” said Kelly. He also added, “Alabama State just came off a run, so we needed to make plays in order to get back on our run.”
Kelly connected on two more three-pointers in the second half. The first one had 9:10 left in the game, which pushed the Tigers' lead to 65-45. With 2:23 remaining, he hit his final three to give the Tigers a 79-55 lead. With Johni Broome and Chad Baker-Mazara not having their typical games, Kelly stepped up to help lead the team to victory.
“People we rely on throughout the team for energy, they weren't there, so I had to bring another level of energy to get us going,” said Kelly. The Tigers will need the great shooting to continue at Rupp Arena for Kelly. Auburn will play No. 9 Creighton on Saturday in the second round. The game will be broadcast by TBS and truTV with an approximate tip-off time of 6:10 p.m. CT.
This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Auburn's Miles Kelly credits teammates for strong first round showing
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