Chalk it up to nerves playing in the largest and most hostile arenas for the first time. Chalk it up to the sickness that has been going around campus, leaving him fatigued and not 100%. Whatever it was, freshman standout A.J. Ogilvy had not been performing up to his typical level of dominant play in the past few games.

That all changed on Saturday against Auburn.

Averaging just 10.2 points in his last four outings, Ogilvy led the Commodores with 19 points and nine rebounds in a 78-71 victory over the Tigers.

“Obviously I’ve been in a bit of a slump,” Ogilvy said. “It was good to come back out and get back to playing how I know I can.”

Vanderbilt took advantage of Ogilvy’s size advantage over Auburn all afternoon, pounding the ball into the paint for easy buckets. It certainly helped that the man assigned to guard Ogilvy, senior Quan Prowell, stood a full three inches shorter than the Aussie center.

“We just had a hard time with Ogilvy,” said Auburn coach Jeff Lebo. “We had a hard time trying to defend him.”

Even more impressive was the fact that Ogilvy picked up his fourth foul of the game with twelve minutes left and was still a productive force down low late in the game.

“I thought A.J. was really good,” Vanderbilt coach Kevin Stallings said. “The foul trouble was what got us in a jam, but we had them in a little bit of foul trouble too, so it was kind of balancing each other out.”

Ogilvy was ready to play from the get-go, scoring the first two baskets for the Commodores and adding a monster block on Prowell. By halftime, he had picked up thirteen points to lead all scorers and had not missed a field goal. For the game, Ogilvy shot 67 percent from the field and hit seven of his eight free throws.

Saturday’s game marked the first time in weeks that Ogilvy had been playing at 100 percent, as he had been battling illness throughout the tough stretch in which the Commodores lost four out of five. Ogilvy attributed his health to much of his success against Auburn.

“I’m feeling a lot better today, and that obviously helped out a lot,” he said. “I was really upset with how I’ve been playing over the past few weeks and really concentrated on trying to come out and step it up.”

As Stallings put it, “A.J. came back to life today.”

For Ogilvy and the rest of the Commodores, it was the win that mattered most, and as SEC play heats up, they’ll take one however they can get it.