Bruce Pearl pleased with athleticism in win over Israel All-Star Select
After facing Israel’s top players under the age of 20 last Tuesday, Auburn took on a bigger challenge Sunday by taking on the Israel All-Star Select squad, a team made up of athletes aged 20-34.
The gap in age did not slow down Auburn’s attack, as they grabbed another huge win, defeating Israel’s all-star bunch 107-71 in Tel Aviv. The Tigers were paced by freshman Yohan Traore, who scored 20 points in his second straight contest.
What really stood out for Auburn was their defensive efforts. Auburn pulled down 45 rebounds as a team and forced 30 turnovers. Head coach Bruce Pearl was pleased with his team’s athleticism.
“Our defense was good. We had guys like Zep Jasper, Tre Donaldson, Chris Moore, KD (Johnson), Yo (Traore), and Dylan (Cardwell). Those guys really picked us up defensively and made plays with their athleticism, effort and energy,” Pearl said after the game in a release. “It was really good, and that’s what you’ve got to do right now because we don’t have a lot of our offensive package in. We know that if we can use our athleticism to make Israel try to go faster by pressing up on them, it’s the right way to play.”
Pearl also says that freshmen Donaldson, Chance Westry and Traore have caught on early to Auburn’s style of play thanks in part to the veterans on the team. Pearl says that veteran experience will be needed when they face the Israeli National Team on Monday.
“Tomorrow night, we’re going to play the Israeli National Team, and that team is going to be 30-40 points better than the team we just played tonight. It will be a great challenge for us physically,” Pearl said. “They’re going to run great stuff, they’ll have a scouting report on us because they will have seen us play twice. We pretty much don’t have anything else in right now, so we’ve got to kind of go with what we’ve got.”
Auburn’s third and final game of the Israel tour will tip off at noon CT on Monday and can be seen nationally on the SEC Network.
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