AUBURN — With less than five minutes to play in the fourth quarter, Decatur senior Devon Kelley’s night was over.
The 6-foot-5 inch forward walked with a frustrated pace to the Golden Gator bench and plopped down into the seat next to assistant coach Robert Oliver and let out a sigh of exhaustion.
Turnovers and a poor start to the second quarter drove the Decatur boys basketball team to a 66-48 loss to Auburn Dec. 2 at Auburn High School.
The Decatur (1-1) loss came despite Auburn (1-1) missing two of its biggest scoring threats due to injury.
“I think it was that start,” head coach David Choi said. “We started out a little flat. We picked it up there a little at the end (of the second quarter), which translated to the second half. Had we played the first half the way we did the last 17 minutes of the game, this is a different result.”
Both teams spent the first eight minutes attempting to gain the upper hand, but the Trojans took a 12-6 lead to the second quarter.
The Gators’ four turnovers to start the game led Auburn on a 19-6 run and forced Choi to furiously call timeout.
As players sat down and looked to Choi, the Decatur coach took a moment to collect himself. Choi walked over, squatted down and took a moment to look each player in the eye.
Choi could only muster five words to his starters.
“We are bad right now,” Choi said, followed by a long pause. “This is not Decatur basketball. This isn’t what we did the other night. We have to get back to that.”
Choi was right: The Gators gave the ball back to the Trojans six additional times before going into the half trailing 31-12.
Decatur came out in the second half desperately searching for answers, and both Kelley and junior two-guard Malik Eggleston answered the plea and provided the majority of the Gators second-half scoring.
Despite going into the fourth quarter down 52-32, Kelley and his ability to dominate the paint came through in the final minute and a half of the quarter.
After taking a reach-around pass underneath the basket from Da’Lon Butler, Kelley missed a wide-open layup. With an instant look of frustration, Kelley leaped back up, grabbed his own rebound and converted the put-back score.
“We weren’t on our game,” Kelley said. “We didn’t come out and execute our stuff, our press breaks. Instead of dictating the tempo, we kind of let them dictate it and how fast they run.”
In the final eight minutes of the game, Kelley scooped up three more offensive rebounds, all resulting in second-chance points.
Kelley said it seemed Auburn ignored his presence in the paint in the second half, which allowed for his eight second-chance points down the stretch.
“They weren’t really finding me as much,” Kelley said. “So I was able to walk to the glass, and our guys saw that and were crashing the offensive glass. It was a good effort.”
With 4:41 left to play and the Gators trailing Auburn 57-41, however, Kelley was called for his final foul. Kelley finished with a team-leading 17 points and eight rebounds, while Butler and Eggleston each had nine points.
After its 39-point win over Archbishop Murphy in the season opener and an 18-point loss to Auburn, Choi said it is time for Decatur to go back to the drawing board.
He said he expects more off nights to come. But with more work and better effort on the defensive end, Choi said the Gators “early exits” should become less frequent.
“For us, we’re going to be inconsistent sometimes,” Choi said. “Some nights shots aren’t going to fall. Where we have to focus is defense. It should never be inconsistent. If we can do that, we’re going to be alright.”
