There was only one recipe for disaster in Auburn’s 67-62 loss to Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament: missed shots. The Tigers shot 30% from the floor as a team compared to the Aggies’ 44%.
Despite a strong comeback effort led by four second-half Wendell Green Jr. threes, Auburn’s weak shooting in the first half dug itself too big a hole to dig out of in the second half in a five-point loss to Texas A&M in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals.
The Tigers came out swinging for the fences, shooting 20 3-pointers in the first half, and only making three of them. Not only that, but they were not having success driving to the basket like the Aggies were. The Aggies were able to get downhill and rack up 16 points in the paint in the first half, and then 12 more in the second half.
At halftime, Auburn was shooting 16% from the field compared to Texas A&M’s 45%, and the Aggies took a 37-21 lead to the break.
Texas A&M recognized Auburn’s early shooting troubles and continued to back off of Auburn and let them shoot throughout the game. Auburn did not alter its game plan after shots were not falling early on. The Tigers continued to be aggressive and put up shots, and they had some success against a relaxed perimeter defense from the Aggies late in the contest.
However, the halftime lead was simply too big for Auburn to surmount, even after outscoring Texas A&M by nine and increasing its shooting percentage to 46.9 in the second half.
Auburn shot a much-improved 6-for-16 in the second half from three, but after getting the lead down to four with 36 seconds on the clock, it ran out of magic.
Outside of three 3-pointers from Jabari Smith and five from Green, the team shot an underwhelming 6% from three, going 1-for-18.
“We’re a team that plays our best when everyone contributes,” Pearl said. “If you take Jabari [Smith] and Wendell [Green Jr] out of the 3-point equation, we shot 6% as a team from three. That’s something that’s plagued our offense all year.”
Sophomore K.D. Johnson could not get a bucket to fall in the game despite shooting 14 times, the second-most on the team behind Smith. Of those 14, six were 3-pointers. The team recognizes how important it is for the guard to score. Even after his 0-for-9 first half, his teammates continued to feed him the ball and let him drive.
He has been one of the best on the team this season driving to the basket and scoring through contact, especially when the team is struggling offensively. He took over and helped force two overtimes versus UConn back in November and led the team to a win over Florida in January when Walker Kessler and others were struggling to put up points in the game.
Without a doubt, his teammates are confident in Johnson’s ability to bounce back from a poor performance going into the NCAA Tournament.
“100% sure that he’ll bounce back,” Smith said. “Just an off shooting game, but I know how good he is, and I know he’ll get back in the gym and just get back to making shots.”
Auburn dominated in several categories, but missed shots negated any areas where it had the advantage.
The Tigers dominated the offensive boards in the first half, hauling in 11 offensive rebounds to the Aggies’ four. The advantage was negated, however, by Auburn’s inability to make a shot. Auburn only scored three second-chance points on those 11 offensive rebounds.
Finishing on top of the offensive rebounding battle 18-to-10, the Tigers still trailed in points in the paint. Texas A&M recorded 28 paint points as opposed to 18 by Auburn, who optioned to take over 50% of their shots from beyond the 3-point arch.
“They collapsed inside, so they made us shoot open shots,” Green said. “They gave us open shots, we just had to hit them. I feel like we penetrated and made plays for each other. I feel like we shared the ball unselfishly; we trust each other, but we just didn’t hit open shots.”
Shooting 50% from three, Texas A&M had success on the outside as well as holding the advantage in the paint. It went 8-for-16 on 3-point shots. It seemed as if the Aggies ran a more balanced offense and were much more consistent.
Pearl said his team’s preparation was not at a lack and neither was their desire to win, but he did give credit to the Aggies for their impressive win.
“Give [Texas] A&M credit; they played inspired, and they played like their hair was on fire because they’re trying to get in the NCAA Tournament,” Pearl said. “Texas A&M outplayed us. They were tougher than we were, and they made shots. ”
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