MACHESNEY PARK — Harlem kept up with Auburn for three quarters, but all that work vanished in a blink of an eye in the fourth period Friday.

A quick Auburn team turned a three-point lead into an 11-point lead in under two minutes in the fourth quarter and went on to win 54-46 at Harlem. It was the conference opener for both teams.

The Knights’ full-court defense forced 29 Harlem turnovers, three of which came during Auburn’s 8-0 deciding run halfway through the fourth quarter.

“When we’re playing both transition defense and half-court defense well, that’s our calling card,” Auburn coach Bryan Ott said.

Auburn (4-1, 1-0 NIC-10) started slow and trailed by as much as seven points early in the second quarter. The Knights went 2-for-19 in first-quarter field goals and ended the half 7-for-29.

Meanwhile, Harlem’s 6-foot-7 center Casey Beck came off the bench and dominated the post in the first half. The junior scored 12 points, grabbed five rebounds and blocked six Auburn shots before halftime.

“We expected him to do that to us,” Auburn senior Eddie Cade said. “We have played with him. We knew what he was going to do.

“We just had to get warmed up.”

The teams were tied at 23 at halftime after Harlem’s Keenan Kellett sank buzzer-beating 3-pointers to end both the first and second quarters.

But when Auburn returned to the floor, the Knights quickly took the lead for good on an Eddie Bowling layup and a 3-pointer from Darnell VanVleet. Cortavien Wiggins followed it with back-to-back steals and layups, and Auburn led 36-32 heading into the fourth.

“I thought in the second half that we really amped up our defensive pressure, and offensively we settled down,” Ott said. “No matter what (Harlem’s) size was, we still had to attack.”

The Knights then forced six more Harlem turnovers in the fourth. Baskets from Kashif Maxwell, Cade and J.D. Danforth made up the 8-0 run that sealed the win.

“Auburn’s defense in the second half created a lot of problems for us,” Harlem coach Mike Moore said. “We didn’t handle their pressure well, and we turned the ball over way too many times. You can’t expect to win when you turn the ball over as much as we did.”

Beck finished with 15 points, 12 rebounds and eight blocks for the Huskies, and Kellett chipped in 10 points. Chaz Winters scored eight points in the fourth and finished with 10.

Maxwell (14), Cade (11) and Danforth (10) scored in double figures for the Knights. Cade also had 12 rebounds.

- Emily Tropp, rrstar.com