The final Iron Bowl in Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum proved a fitting send-off as the Auburn Men's Basketball team sunk the Alabama Crimson Tide Saturday afternoon 58-57.
The Tigers put up one of their best defensive efforts this season, holding Alabama to no points in the last 2:22 of the game.
Offensively, Auburn senior guard Tay Waller scored a game-high 20 points, nine of which came from behind the 3-point line.
"This is one of my best overall games," Waller said. "Everyone was waiting for the offense and defense to come together and it did. I felt like if I stepped up defensively in transition and our offense would flow more smoothly and it did tonight."
Auburn senior guard DeWayne Reed was first to put points up for the Tigers by hitting two foul shots prompted by Alabama junior forward Chris Hines.
Auburn extended its lead to 7-0, until a layup by Alabama junior forward Justin Knox kicked off a Crimson Tide surge ending in a 27-24 halftime lead.
"I've played (Alabama) a couple of times now, being a senior," said Auburn senior forward Lucas Hargrove. "I think this is the best defensive Alabama team we've played so far. You have to give them a
lot of credit, they're a good ball club."
With 13:30 to go, senior guard Mikhail Torrance put the Tide at 40-33, its largest lead of the game. Auburn then scored 10 straight points, and from then on the score margin was no more than four points.
"We defended really, really well for 40 minutes," said Auburn head coach Jeff Lebo. "We just found a way to gut it out, make some stops and some big plays."
A Reed free throw tied the game at 57-57, but the game-sealing play came when Reed stole the ball from Torrance at half court with five seconds to go.
"DeWayne made a gutsy move trying to steal the ball at half court," said Auburn sophomore guard Frankie Sullivan. "Any other time coach would have gone crazy but he got the steal."
Hargrove scored the winning point after being fouled with 3.1 seconds to play. The win moves Auburn to 11-11 overall and 2-5 in the SEC.
Alabama moves to 13-8 total and 3-4 in conference play.
"We have to do a better job with the basketball," said Alabama head coach Anthony Grant. "We turned the ball over 19 times, 12 in the second half. No flow. No continuity. You can't do that, especially on the road."
Auburn will take a week off before facing Arkansas in Fayetteville at 12:47 p.m. next Saturday.
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