The Auburn Tigers (10-11, 1-5 SEC) failed to knock off the No. 18 Ole Miss Rebels (16-4, 4-2 SEC) in the last meeting between the two SEC teams at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum.
The Tigers played a strong first half going into the locker room with a 41-38 lead.
Ole Miss's depth proved to be the deciding factor of the game as the Rebels took control in the second half.
Senior guard Tay Waller lead the Tigers with a total of 21 points.
Waller said the Tigers' inability to be a dominant second half team during the post game press conference.
"We show spurts in the second half, but for some reason we just can't keep it up," Waller said. "It's the same thing every game. It's very frustrating."
Jeff Lebo fell to a 5-6 record against the Rebels in his sixth year as Auburn's head coach.
"We gotta be a little bit tougher when we need to dig down and get some stops," Lebo said. "That's been a frustrating thing, especially in crunch time."
The defensive player matchups ultimately brought the Tigers down to a 1-5 record in the SEC.
"We can't finish out plays, and defensively we're looking for a way to stop people, and we've had a hard time trying to defend," Lebo said. "A lot of that has to do, I think, with our size on the perimeter."
Ole Miss head coach Andy Kennedy credited the Rebel second half control to the lack of depth on Auburn's bench.
"The guys that were making them (3-point shots) played heavy minutes," Kennedy said. "We were hopeful that the depth that we tried to explore early by getting into our bench would pay dividends in the second half."
With senior guard DeWayne Reed scoring a total of 15 points against the Rebels, he surpasses former Auburn guard Frank Tolbert and moves into 18th place for highest all-time career points in Auburn history with a total of 1,248 points.
The Tigers will host the Alabama Crimson Tide Saturday, Jan. 30 at 3 p.m.
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