Auburn headed to its second neutral site location in as many weeks Thursday as it took on Notre Dame at the Barclays Center.

It was as dominant as Auburn has looked in its first three games of the season, beating Notre Dame 83-59.

Notre Dame has struggled to begin the year and has a new look under first-year coach Micah Shrewsberry.

But that doesn’t take away from the improvement Auburn showed compared to its first two games.

The Tigers are now 2-1 overall this season. It was the most complete Auburn has looked this season. Here are our three takeaways.

Auburn’s defense looked the best it has all year

Let’s start by noting Notre Dame has not shown to be a great offense this year. But that doesn’t take away the fact tonight showed the most growth in Auburn’s defense at any point this year.

After two games where Auburn played poorly on defense and admitted as much. So it has been a significant focus for this Tigers team to work on. Much of Auburn’s defensive work to get better defensively has come in its movements, and making sure they properly communicate and play off one another.

So it would make sense that Auburn’s defense against Notre Dame looked its best rotating in any game this season.

Auburn forced three shot clock violations in the first 12 minutes. Largely, it was because early in the game Auburn hardly allowed anything inside. It forced Notre Dame to shoot 3-pointers over Auburn’s defense. The Irish missed their first 11 3-pointers of the game, all coming in the first half.

The defense lapsed near the end of the first half without the same speed and physicality that had characterized the first 17 minutes. The Irish closed the lead down to six at halftime.

And all Auburn’s defense did was lock back in to begin the second half on an 11-0 run which jump-started Auburn pulling away for good. More on that run below. It said a lot about this Auburn team.

Aden Holloway got his first start and still is good at basketball

Tre Donaldson had been the leader in Auburn’s point guard battle throughout the fall. Largely that was due to his experience in Auburn’s offense compared to the 5-star freshman Aden Holloway.

Holloway, too, dealt with an ankle injury late in the preseason.

So it made sense that Donaldson was the starter over Auburn’s first two games. But Holloway had played so well behind him. He won SEC Freshman of the Week after scoring 15 points per game in Auburn’s two first contests.

It was thus fairly to plan that he worked his way up into the starting lineup. And he yet again was just the same highly-talented, knock-down shooter he’s quickly proven to be.

A wildly exciting player, Holloway scored 15 points and made four 3-pointers. His ability to drain contested 3s remains an elite attribute. He’s got one of, if not the most, pure shots on this team.

Donaldson had another good game in his own right. He’s been reliable for Auburn in all three games regardless of his role.

He and Holloway combined for 25 points and 10 assists against two turnovers.

An opening second-half run that showed Auburn’s early development

In some ways, this game mirrored Auburn’s season-opening loss to Baylor. Auburn played well and jumped out to a first-half lead in that game before the defensive wheels came off in the second half — beginning with a Baylor run right out of halftime.

Against Notre Dame? Auburn played well in the first half and jumped out to a lead. The Notre Dame run came in the final three minutes of the first half. Auburn didn’t respond when Baylor made a run.

Auburn absolutely responded Thursday night.

In the second half, Auburn opened up on an 11-0 run and outscored Notre Dame 28-11 over the first 10 minutes. It had 10 rebounds before Notre Dame had a single one in the second half. It had 10 assists to three turnovers over the first 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, Auburn forced Notre Dame into 4-14 shooting over that first 10-minute stretch and 0-7 on 3-pointers.

It was contributions from all across Auburn’s deep roster as the lead grew from six points at halftime up to double digits and eventually 20+ points before cruising to the finish.

This stretch was the best of what Auburn can be as a basketball team. Auburn hadn’t put together much, if any, play with the elite offense Auburn has proven to be capable of alongside dominant defense — let alone an extended stretch like the second-half run.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]