Despite Tahaad Pettiford and Keyshawn Hall combining for 49 points, Auburn dropped the first edition of this season’s Iron Bowl of Basketball to Alabama, 96-92 in Neville Arena on Saturday. The Crimson Tide scored 59 second-half points to secure the win.
“They made tough one-on-one plays in the second half, and we got a little out of character from what worked in the first 18 minutes,” said Auburn head coach Steven Pearl. “We scored 92 points. We’ve got to be able to win that game. It has nothing to do with our offense; it has everything to do with our defense. Our defense has got to get better. If we want to win games, we’ll sit down and guard.”
Pettiford scored 25 points – his second 25-point performance in league play – while Hall added 24 points for his 14th 20-point outing of the season. Kevin Overton added 17 with four triples, and KeShawn Murphy logged his third double-double this season with 13 points and 12 rebounds.
But those efforts were overshadowed as Alabama shot a season-high 52 percent from deep with 12 3-pointers.
Alabama opened the game by hitting just two of its first eight attempts from deep. But the Crimson Tide netted three in the final minutes before the break and converted another in the opening minutes of the second half, fueling a soon-to-be 11-0 run which catapulted them in front for the first time since the 18:21 mark in the first half, 58-54.
Alabama never looked back as it scored 1.53 points per possession in the second half behind Labaron Philon Jr.’s 16 points in the final stanza.
“The last two minutes in the first half when we gave up three 3s was a huge momentum swing,” Pearl said. “It gave them the confidence they needed to know that they could knock down those shots.”
Auburn turned 14 Alabama turnovers into 20 points on the other end, outrebounded the Tide 35-30, and held a 48-38 advantage in the paint.
But Alabama, with the No. 4 scoring offense in the nation and second-best 3-point shooting clip, proved too much down the stretch with its 15th 90-point outing this season.
“We’ve got to guard,” Pearl said. “Our best players have got to be better defenders. They’ve shown the ability to do so. If we’re going to beat the best teams on our schedule, our best players have got to play better defense.”
Auburn will host No. 15 Vanderbilt on Tuesday at 6 p.m. CT on SEC Network.
“We have another unbelievable opportunity on Tuesday to wash this one away,” Pearl said. “This team’s done a great job of bouncing back after tough situations. We’ve got to stay consistent, learn from it and move on because in this league, the next one comes really quick.” TG
