Auburn rallies past Mississippi State to keep NCAA Tournament hopes alive

Auburn entered the SEC Tournament with one mindset. Survive and advance. 

The Tigers got the job done Wednesday afternoon, taking down Mississippi State 79-61, behind Kevin Overton’s 22 points. 

Steven Pearl’s squad came into the first-round tilt as the first team out of the NCAA Tournament, according to Joe Lunardi, so this was a massive opportunity to keep their season alive and they came through. 

KeShawn Murphy propelled Auburn to a quick 7-2 lead, scoring all seven points himself, but picked up his second foul of the game via a technical for heckling the Mississippi State bench and immediately had to take a seat.

“His energy is unmatched,” Overton said of Murphy. “I’ve never played with a big man with that kind of energy. Besides the two fouls in a heartbeat, he was tremendous.” 

Murphy’s mental error flipped the script early, as the Bulldogs went on a 9-2 run to take a 11-9 lead. 

You could feel the tension inside Bridgestone Arena when the Bulldogs grabbed a 33-23 advantage with just over two minutes to go in the first half, as Auburn’s season was on the line. 

However, a 7-0 run from the Tigers courtesy of Sebastian Williams-Adams, Overton, and Tahaad Pettiford cut the deficit to three and tilted momentum back on Auburn’s side.  

Back-to-back buckets from the Bulldogs to open the second half made it an eight point advantage and it wasn’t looking good for Auburn as they have not responded well to trailing over the last month. 

Overton wasn’t ready for the season to end as he poured in four shots from behind the arc, sparking a 23-2 Auburn run and flipping the game completely as the Tigers held a 51-40 lead.

The junior from Oklahoma City, Okla., was unbelievable shooting the ball on Broadway, going 8-for-19 from the field and 50% from behind the arc, knocking down six 3-pointers.

Mississippi State’s 61 points were not a product of bad shot selection; it was Auburn’s relentless defensive pressure. Sixty-one points is the fewest the Tigers have allowed since November against Merrimack, which scored 62 at Neville Arena.

“I thought that was as good as our defense has played in a while,” Pearl said. “71 possessions, 61 points. That’s what it’s supposed to look like. Did a good job of executing some of the new stuff that we put in.” 

The Tigers will now take on the No. 5 seeded Tennessee Volunteers tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. CST in another do-or-die game, as Auburn needs to keep stacking wins to improve its at-large bid odds to the NCAA Tournament.

“They’re going to challenge your manhood and you have to respond,” Pearl said on facing the Volunteers. “Our guys have to step up to the challenge… and show a different level of toughness.”