The final Auburn Basketball game at Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum ended just as the first did, with a win. Senior guard Tay Waller led the Tigers to a 89-80 victory over Mississippi State, scoring 34 points and shooting 71.1 percent from the 3-point line.
"(Tay)'s been unbelievable shooting the basketball," said Auburn head coach Jeff Lebo. "We'll continue to ride him for as long as we can." The game was neck-and-neck from the beginning, as senior guard DeWayne Reed scored five minutes in to give the Tigers a 13-10 lead. Waller then shot the last of his three first half 3-pointers from the corner, bringing the crowd to its feet, followed shortly by a 2-pointer by Reed that put the Tigers up by 8 points.
Though MSU's Jarvis Varnado tied it up at 20-20 with 12:09 to go in the first half, a layup by senior center Brendon Knox kicked off a steady Auburn offensive culminating in a 46-37 lead going into the half. "Both teams are pretty good offensively and it makes you spread out," Lebo said. "I thought we did a good job on Varnado. Knox did a great job for us in there. We didn't make foul shots like we would've liked, especially early in the game, but we made some key ones down the stretch."
Though MSU mounted a comeback early in the second half, closing a 10 point gap to tie it up with nine minutes to go, Bulldog fouls allowed Auburn to regain the lead. "There was a lot of pressure, but we stayed composed,'' Knox said. "We stayed focused. We kept our heads up and kept going."
MSU's Dee Bost brought the score to 85-80 with less than a minute to go, but he missed a foul shot and two free throws from senior forward Lucas Hargrove put the game away.
"I had a lot of people tell me they didn't want to go home sad because it was the last game played (here)," Waller said. "I'm just glad we sent them home happy." All but 11 of Auburn's points in the game were scored by seniors, among
whom are Hargrove, Reed, Waller, Knox and Johnnie Lett. After the final buzzer, fans and players present at the Coliseum's first game gathered on the court for a ceremony. Wally Tinker, the player who scored the building's first basket on Jan. 11, 1969, made its final one as well.
"I was dreading this game and I was sick to my stomach for most of the game," Lebo said. "I've been involved with a lot of games and the anticipation of this one made me want to win this one even more. In 42 years, there have been so many memories in this place. It has a lot of
meaning to people in this area."
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