Auburn’s winningest senior class in program history was one win away from perfection.
The No. 17 Tigers entered Wednesday 16-0 inside Auburn Arena with a chance to finish the regular season unbeaten at home for just the third time in Auburn’s history, and for the first time under head coach Bruce Pearl.
Instead, Texas A&M spoiled Auburn’s Senior Night behind a 19-point performance by Aggies’ forward Josh Nebo and held off the Tigers’ late rally, 78-75, to earn the upset victory and send Pearl’s senior class out on a noticeably sour note.
"Our post defense really, really, really hurt us tonight," Pearl said. "They've got a good post offensive player in Nebo, but we just got stuck behind him and didn't front him to a fault, which is what our plan was, and as a result they really hurt us at the rim."
Auburn (24-6, 11-6 Southeastern Conference) didn’t go away easy, nearly erasing a nine-point deficit in the final 46 seconds due to the Aggies’ struggles at the free-throw line.
J’ Von McCormick knocked down a contested 3 with 7.4 seconds left to make it 77-75. And following an Auburn intentional foul, Texas A&M’s Savion Flagg made the second of two free throws making it 78-75 with seven seconds left on the clock, leaving the door open for Auburn to force overtime.
But, Danjel Purifoy’s potential game-tying 3 at the buzzer went begging, bouncing off the back of the rim and ending the chance at what could have been yet another improbable, come-from-behind win.
"Every game that it seems like that we've won have been one- or two-possession games," Texas A&M coach Buzz Williams said. "I guess because we've had so many reps at that, there's maybe a little bit more calmness than you would think.
"Still a lot of anxiety. We didn't execute very well. They did some really good things, but without sounding arrogant those are the games that we've been able to be in.”
Samir Doughty, who was playing his last game inside Auburn Arena, scored a game-high 25 points, shot 5 of 9 from behind the arc and made 10 of 11 from the free-throw line.
It still wasn’t enough to will his team to victory in its home finale.
“It’s definitely tough,” Doughty said, who notched his 10th game with 20 or more points this year. “We had expectations of winning this game. I guess they were the better team tonight. They did a good job of forcing turnovers. They played great defense. They deserved this win, but we could’ve played much better. It’s on to the next game.”
Doughty was one of seven Auburn seniors playing their final home game, including starters McCormick, Purifoy and Austin Wiley. They leave Auburn in the history books with 98 wins collectively.
Wiley and freshman Isaac Okoro were the only other Tigers in double figures, each tallying 15 points apiece. The Auburn bench totaled just six points, compared to 16 from Texas A&M. Purifoy scored nine and McLemore failed to score.
After trailing 33-26 at halftime, Doughty quickly poured in five points to lead Auburn on a 7-0 run in the opening minutes of the second half, tying the game at 33-33 and forcing a Texas A&M timeout.
Almost all momentum was stymied however when Pearl and his son, assistant coach Steven Pearl, picked up back-to-back technical fouls with 15:46 remaining. Both were protesting an earlier foul call, and Pearl noted in his postgame press conference that the referee’s decision gave the Aggies a much needed boost to stop the bleeding.
"The two technical fouls on our bench really changed the momentum of the game," Bruce Pearl said. "I was in my box. I didn't cuss. I was protesting the contact. I didn't think our bench needed to get hit twice. I didn't think our bench needed to get hit once."
Aggies’ guard Wendell Mitchell, who scored 14 points and was one of four for Texas A&M in double figures, made all four from the free-throw strike to retake the lead for his team, 41-38.
Throughout the contest, Texas A&M’s zone defense gave Auburn fits which translated into 13 first-half turnovers. The Tigers struggled to find a rhythm in the first half, and the answers didn’t ever come in the second, as they finished 10 of 30 from the 3-point line.
"We talked about making one more pass; sometimes we didn't do that," Doughty said. "Everything was correctable. But credit to them — they played great defense throughout the game, especially in the first half."
The Aggies never led by double digits but did lead for over 24 minutes of gameplay and never wavered in shot-making ability down the stretch. Mitchell’s contested 3-pointer, that went through the net as the shot clock was expiring with 1:13 left, made it 75-67 and all but put the Tigers’ away and sent a chunk of Auburn fans heading for the exits early.
Had it completed the late comeback, this year’s Auburn team would’ve been the first team to complete the regular season without a blemish at home since 1998-99. The Tigers have already secured a double bye in next week’s SEC Tournament with Mississippi State’s loss at South Carolina Tuesday.
“The crowd was great again,” Pearl said. “To be 16-1 at home and a top-four seed (at the SEC tournament), this team has done a great job. This team has battled and competed and scrapped and clawed and hasn’t quit in any way, shape or form.”
Auburn will visit Tennessee Saturday to close the regular season.
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