The Tigers may have held the lead for just under 25 minutes Saturday but that was not enough to hold off No. 3 Alabama, who surged in the second half to ultimately win 77-69.
It was a tale of two halves. Auburn shot 37% from the field in the first half and 38.5% from three. In the second half, the Tigers went 2-of-11 from being the arc, 28.6% from the field, and Wendell Green Jr. was the only one with any makes from three.
"Auburn coaches, Auburn fans, Auburn players — Auburn doesn't like to lose to Alabama," said head coach Bruce Pearl. "Part of the reason is the win means a lot. Especially it means a lot when the opponent is really good. Alabama has been a really good opponent in the past four years."
Green Jr. led his team with 24 points, 16 of which he scored in the second half. Jaylin Williams put up 14 in the field half but in the second was limited to just two in 12 minutes. Williams and Green Jr. were the only two Tigers to hit a three during the game.
“Early, they were sagging off a little bit, giving me a little too much space,” Williams said. “The shots were there. I’m in the gym every day with Ira Bowman, working on that same catch-and-stick shot and it was just there.”
Stuck in foul trouble for a time, Johni Broome finished with just eight points. The Tigers were dominated in the paint, outscored 44-20 by the Tide.
"(Broome) got some pretty good looks there. If we could've gotten him some deeper touches, if I could've done a better job of getting him deeper, getting him better looks, he might have shot a better percentage," Pearl said. "I wanted to go to him more in the second half.'
Alabama hit its simple shots — the team went 12-of-16 where Auburn went just 5-of-18. Those layups accounted for 31% of the Tide's scoring. The Tigers also didn't get much bench production, with just 14 points scored outside the starting five.
Auburn’s last lead was 62-61 with 6:12 remaining in the game. From there, Alabama outscored the Tigers 16-7 to take over the scoreboard and eventually lock down the win.
“It was tough down the stretch. We just really needed stops, needed to stick together,” said senior Jaylin Williams. “We stuck together but we couldn’t really get stops when we needed to get stops, some rebounds. I know I missed some checkouts on Brandon Miller and it cost us the game a little bit.”
College GameDay was in the building to film prior to the game but the raucous Jungle could only contribute to the environment, not the score.
The Tigers are now 7-5 in conference play and on a three-game losing streak, but Pearl isn't disheartened by the effort he has seen during those three losses.
"We've lost to five NCAA Tournament team and because we've had such a good year from the standpoint of beating the teams we're supposed to beat, and we've got some good road wins," Pearl said. "The margins where we've lost have been close. Our NET (ranking) is not getting destroyed."
Next up, Auburn will host Missouri on Tuesday, Feb. 14 in the first of a final stretch of six conference games to close out the season.
"Don't worry about me getting them ready," Pearl said. "Missouri's really good and we'll respect them...We need to be more than ready to play."
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Callie Stanford, junior in communications, is the sports editor at the Auburn Plainsman. Currently a junior, she has been with The Plainsman since January 2021.
Twitter: @Stanford1Callie
