Coming off a mid-week win vs. Mississippi State, Auburn needed a win at Ole Miss to keep a postseason NCAA Tournament berth a real possibility.
It was a tale of two halves at the Pavilion for the Tigers. Auburn dominated the first half of the game, but a lackluster defensive performance in the second half propelled Ole Miss to their 10th straight win over Auburn by a score of 90-84.
"This is the most disappointing loss in my two and a half years here at Auburn," said head coach Bruce Pearl.
Auburn (16-9, 5-7) controlled the first half against Ole Miss (15-10, 6-6) early Saturday evening. Ole Miss started the game on an 8-0 run, before the Tigers closed the first half on a 47-19 run. The Tigers were led in the first half by Ronnie Johnson who had 11 points on 3-4 shooting from 3 in the half. Auburn led by 20 at the break. Auburn would shoot 18-32 (56 percent) from the field and 8-14 (57 percent) from behind the 3-point line entering halftime.
The second half would not go well for the Tigers. Ole Miss would get the score to within 2 at 62-60 with 8:30 left in the second half. Terence Davis would pace Ole Miss in the second half with all of his 26 points. Ole Miss would take their first lead since 12:40 in the first half after a 3 pointer by Cullen Neal with 5:06 minutes left in the game. The Rebels would lead 70-69. Auburn would not regain the lead again. Mustapha Heron would hit a big 3 to cut the lead to 84-82 with 26 seconds left, but he would foul out on the subsequent possession. Ole Miss would close the game with 63 points in the second half and win by a score of 90-84.
"They had 19 points off turnovers," said Pearl. "They had a lot of second chance points in the second half, and they had a lot of points in the paint in the second half. We fouled them too much. It is very, very disappointing.”
Heron and Johnson paced the Tigers with 18 and 16 points respectively, while Neal and Davis would add 20 and 26 points for Ole Miss. Johnson also had 8 assists for Auburn.
Auburn would shoot 33-69 (47.8 percent) from the field on the night, but it was ultimately their defensive performance in the second half that would cost them the game.
“Our second half defensive problems continued," said Pearl. "We didn’t guard Ole Miss away from our bench, we turned the ball over way too much, didn’t execute, made mistakes down there and didn’t get back in transition.
"They went to the foul line 23 times and made 21. Our point guards went to the the free throw line one time tonight. One time."
Pearl is ready to move on from this one, but knows that his team must learn from this. He told media members, “I’ve got to try to get my locker room ready for Florida, but we’ve got to get accountable for this one right here.”
Auburn hosts a ranked Florida team at Auburn Arena this coming Tuesday. Tip-off against the Gators is at 6 p.m. CST on SEC Network.
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