In the second half of Auburn’s 69-59 loss to Ole Miss on Saturday, Feb. 20, Cinmeon Bowers saw something change in his teammates.
Suddenly, players had their heads down and their shoulders slumped.
“I just felt like we gave up a little bit, [with] like 10 minutes left,” Bowers said. “We was only down like six or seven points … I don’t know why. I think because we weren’t making shots so our shooters, they had their head down. I was trying to pick them up and get them shots, but they just weren’t going in tonight.”
Maybe the disappointment and frustration was the product of Auburn’s shooters missing open looks.
Or maybe, on a night when junior guard T.J. Dunans returned from injury after a 15-game absence, it was because Auburn lost yet another star to injury.
With 16:36 left in the second half, forward Tyler Harris went up for a layup, then crashed to the floor after taking an elbow to the jaw.
His teammates, some with hands on their hips, others simply shaking their heads, watched as Harris was carried off the floor by trainers, the latest victim on a long list of injuries this season.
“That affected us a lot,” Bowers said. “We needed Tyler.”
Dunans agreed.
“That was hard,” he said. “I think, if we had had him, I think we would have pulled this one out. That’s a big piece to our team.”
After the game, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said Harris suffered a concussion, and it’s unclear how much time he will miss.
“The next 24 hours are very important as to whether or not it is something that is going to keep him out a while or whether it’s going to be something he is going to be able to bounce back from quicker,” Pearl said. “We just got to go through the protocol. But he was [knocked] out for a while.”
Despite missing most of the final half, Harris led Auburn in scoring with 13 points.
But even when Harris was in the game, Auburn's shots weren't falling.
After Auburn shot 15-of-23 from beyond the arc in an upset win at Arkansas last Wednesday, the Tigers made only six of their 24 3-point attempts against the Rebels.
Bryce Brown, who set an Auburn freshman record with nine 3-pointers against the Razorbacks, made just three of his nine attempts versus Ole Miss.
“We got the same looks," Bowers said. "We just missed a couple of shots today. [You] can’t be perfect every game.”
Auburn also struggled to handle Ole Miss’ full-court pressure.
The departure of Kareem Canty has left Auburn without a true scholarship point guard, and the Tigers were not able to get into any type of rhythm on offense with Bowers and Dunans sharing time at the point.
“I’m not disappointed in the effort, really disappointed in the execution,” Pearl said. “When you’re going up against a team that changes defense like Ole Miss does, you have to go from breaking pressure and attack mode to getting yourself organized and getting into some structure, and we didn’t as a team.”
Despite its offensive struggles, Auburn managed to hang around for most of the game.
An alley-oop from Dunans to Jordon Granger cut the Rebel lead to five with 6:31 remaining, but Auburn made just one field goal from that point on.
Even with Bowers’ third consecutive double-double (11 points and 18 rebounds), Harris’ loss proved too costly for the Tigers as they lost their eighth game out of the last nine.
“(Harris) was having a good game,” Bowers said. “But that still don’t make it no excuse for us not to win.”
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