No. 21 Auburn headed to Indianapolis looking for their first top-10 victory of the season.
Unfortunately for Steven Pearl and company, the Tigers once again struggled against the nation’s best, falling 88-60 against No. 6 Purdue.
“Our guys battled, our effort was there,” Pearl said. “We needed some more step-up from a few guys. (Overton) stepped up, took some really hard coaching this week and he responded. He flew around, played really hard. That’s a really good team in a tough environment. For us to be competitive in these games we’ve got to make shots and we didn’t do that tonight.”
Kevin Overton led the way for the orange and blue with 22 points on 44.4% shooting from the field.
“We’re young,” Overton said. “We’re learning how to be in these games, how to compete on a consistent level. We took strides, especially defensively, our approach in practice. All of those things are coming together. We’ve got to stay with it.”
After Auburn took an early 7-6 lead, the Boilermakers turned on the jets, making that the Tigers’ last advantage of the evening.
Trey Kaufman-Ren was too much to handle for the Tigers’ defense, as he recorded 18 points on 69% shooting from the field. Once again, Auburn didn’t have the physicality to handle one of the best players in the country.
This Boilermakers beatdown comes just under a year after Auburn took down Purdue 87-69. The two teams are now in much different situations, with Purdue ready to make a run to the Final Four. It just goes to show how much can change in the college basketball landscape in a year.
“This year, they don’t have the same firepower,” said Purdue head coach Matt Painter. “They have a good team. I think it’s the same as us last year. We had a pretty good team, but not a great team like we had the year before.”
Auburn will have next week off for the holidays before returning to action Dec. 29 against Queens in its final non-conference game of the season.
“Our guys haven’t lost confidence. They’re still bought in to what we do, which is really important,” said Pearl. “We may not play four better teams the rest of the year and the SEC’s really good this year. We’ve played four Final Four teams so far. We’ve got to be more competitive in these games. We can’t get blown out like this.”
“We’ve really put our guys in a tough situation. They answered the bell. I’m proud of them,” Pearl added. “People may not want to hear me say that right now, but I am.”
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Rory is a sophomore majoring in journalism sports production. He started with The Plainsman in the spring of 2025.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @RorymGarvin
