With a first-round bye in the SEC Tournament on the line on Saturday in Starkville, Auburn was unable to close its regular season on a high note.
The Tigers fell to Mississippi State, 79-66, despite a career-high 13 points from Horace Spencer, his third personal best in the last four games.
TJ Lang paced four Tigers in double-digit scoring with 16 points, but it was not enough to overcome Mississippi State’s balanced offensive attack.
Auburn jumped to an 8-0 lead to begin the game, but the Bulldogs closed the half on a 39-12 run to take a big advantage into the locker room. The Tigers shot just 27.6 percent from the field and made only two of their 11 3-point attempts in the first half.
“We were prepared to play, and we got off to a good start," said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl. "I thought we got disrupted in the first half. Offensively, we got stagnant and weren’t sharing the ball really well."
Though the offense heated up in the second half — Auburn scored 46 points on 56.7 percent shooting after the break — the first-half deficit was too big to overcome.
A T.J. Dunans bucket cut the State lead to 10 with 7:31 remaining in the game, but the Bulldogs responded with a 14-0 run to put the game out of reach.
Four Bulldogs scored in double figures on Mississippi State’s Senior Day, but it was two freshmen that carried the team to victory, as Quinndary Weathersoon and Malik Newman combined for 33 points.
The loss knocked Auburn back to last place in the league among SEC Tournament-qualifying teams, meaning it will be forced to play in the first round on Wednesday against the No. 12 seed — Tennessee.
That game will tip off at 7 p.m. on Wednesday night at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville.
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