Sure, Auburn defeated Towson Saturday at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum.
Sure, senior Quan Prowell had a stellar afternoon.
And, sure, the Tigers took their seventh win their last eight games, and fifth consecutive, with the 79-59 victory.
But something else was on the mind of Auburn’s players and coaches following the contest.
As if things weren’t bad enough for the heavily depleted Tigers, things got a little worse Saturday.
Early in the first half junior Korvotney Barber, Auburn’s leading scorer and rebounder, left the court in obvious pain and holding his left arm. He was taken for X-Rays and didn’t return.
The diagnosis was not favorable — a broken bone in Barber’s left hand will sideline him for four to six weeks.
“We’re hurtin’ baby,” head coach Jeff Lebo said when asked about having to possibly turn to more walk-ons in Barber’s absence. “We don’t really have answers for that.”
With Barber out, though, Prowell took control of things.
Prowell, who was suspended for the Tigers’ first five games for a violation of team rules, exploded early and often against the outmanned Towson Tigers.
By the end of the day Prowell was one point shy of a career-high with 25 and tied a career-high for rebounds with 11.
Rasheem Barrett added 19 points for the Tigers (8-2).
“I felt like when Vot went out I had to be the big man inside,” Prowell said. “He brings a lot to the table with his energy.
“When he went out I knew it was time for me to step up and play a bigger role.”
Playing its first game following a seven-day layoff, Auburn showed no signs of rust early.
Leading 11-8 at the 1:17 mark of the first half, Auburn ran off 14 unanswered points to go ahead by 17.
Prowell got the run started with a layup off a Quantez Robertson assist. That was followed by a 3-pointer by Robertson from the right side.
Barber exited the game during the run with 11:31 left. But the Tigers’ continued pouring on the points.
Barrett hit a pull-up jumper to make it a 23-8 game, and shortly after Robertson dished a quick pass to Matt Heramb for a layup.
Tony Durant ended the run with a short pull-up jumper from the free-throw line.
From there Auburn’s lead never got below double digits and grew to as many as 22 points in the second half.
“We did some good things and were down to six guys without Vot,” Lebo said. “Offensively we did a good job and most of the time defensively we did a good job with them.”
But despite the strong performance, attention was still placed on Barber and how Auburn will recover from yet another huge setback.
Barber joins a growing list of players forced to miss games, or out for the year.
7-foot-1 center Boubacar Sylla and sophomore Lucas Hargrove have been sidelined with injuries. Josh Dollard took a leave of absence prior to the season and Archie Miaway has been out for academic reasons.
“We’re limited in a lot of ways but the kids keep battling through adversity,” Lebo said. “As tough as it was our first year, we at least had enough to practice.
“This has been difficult to say the least.”
Auburn returns to the court to host Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Wednesday at 7 p.m.