Tahaad Pettiford scored a career-best 27 points and added three steals to lead No. 21 Auburn to an 85-74 victory over No. 14 St. John’s in consolation play in the Players Era tournament Wednesday night in Las Vegas.
Pettiford scored 18 second-half points as the Tigers (6-1) recovered from an 11-point hole to finish 2-1 in the tournament. Keyshawn Hall recorded 20 points and eight rebounds and Kevin Overton added 12 points for Auburn.
Zuby Ejiofor had 24 points and six rebounds for St. John’s (4-3), which went 1-2 in the tourney. Joson Sanon added 16 points for the Red Storm.
Ejiofor made two free throws to start the second half to give the Red Storm a 41-30 lead but the Tigers later controlled the final 10 minutes. Auburn outscored St. John’s 55-35 in the half and made eight consecutive field-goal attempts over a 10-plus minute stretch of the second half.
The Red Storm led 61-55 on Jackson’s dunk just past the midway point of the second half.
Pettiford then took over as the Tigers responded with a 30-11 surge.
Auburn moved ahead at 65-63 on a layup by Pettiford to begin a stretch in which he scored 12 straight Tigers’ points.
Pettiford drained a 3-pointer to make it a five-point margin. After Ejiofor split two free throws, Pettiford buried a jumper to give the Tigers a 70-64 lead with 5:36 remaining.
Ejiofor made two free throws 10 seconds later before Pettiford swished a trey to give Auburn a seven-point lead with 5:11 left. Pettiford finished his personal run with two free throws for a 75-69 lead with 4:26 to play.
Two-plus minutes later, Keshawn Murphy drilled a 3-pointer to give the Tigers a 79-70 advantage and Hall split two free throws with 1:17 left to give Auburn a 10-point lead.
Auburn made 54.7% of its field-goal attempts, including 6 of 14 from 3-point range.
The Red Storm shot 38.3% from the field and were 7 of 25 from behind the arc.
Ejiofor scored 17 first-half points as St. John’s led 39-30 at the break.
The Tigers led 21-14 after Pettiford’s basket with 8:30 left in the half.
Auburn was later ahead by three before St. John’s went on a 12-1 burst. Dillon Mitchell’s dunk capped it and gave the Red Storm a 36-28 advantage with 1:18 remaining.
