With its postseason aspirations hanging in the balance, Auburn basketball came out sluggish in the final game of the regular season and fell to No. 16 Alabama (23-8, 13-5 SEC) 96-84 on Saturday at Coleman Coliseum in Tuscaloosa.
“Alabama played well. They beat us at our own game. We got pushed around,” said Auburn head coach Steven Pearl. “We had a bunch of really bad turnovers which got us into a hole, and we weren’t able to dig out of it.”
Auburn shot a near-60% clip from the field in the second half, as Kevin Overton tallied 22 of his game-high 24 points in the final stanza. Tahad Pettiford added 19 points and four assists, Keyshawn Hall poured in 13 points and six rebounds, and Elyjah Freeman added 11 for Auburn (16-15, 7-11 SEC).
The story of the game for the Tigers was a dismal first-half performance that led to a 22-point lead for the Crimson Tide prior to halftime.
On the positive side, Auburn held the nation’s top 3-point shooting team to 7-of-27 (25.9 percent) from long range (six made triples below its season average), but Alabama found points closer to the basket. The Crimson Tide tallied a whopping 58 points in the paint, marking the second-most Auburn has given up this season and the most in league play.
Alabama out-rebounded Auburn 42-28 on the evening and converted 19 offensive boards into 24 second-chance points.
“It’s a great offensive team,” Pearl said. “They’re going to make shots, and they’re going to make tough plays, but you’ve got to do everything you can to limit their second-chance opportunities. Credit to them, they did a really good job in that part of the game.”
Auburn committed six turnovers before the under-12 timeout in the first half, which fueled an early 8-0 run for Alabama out of the gates. Overall, the Tigers committed 13 turnovers, leading to 17 points on the other end for Alabama.
“Too casual with the ball,” Pearl said. “All of the things we did a good job of fixing in the LSU game, we reverted back to in this game. It ultimately led us to have a really slow start.”
Alabama eventually pushed its lead to 28 points in the second half, but Auburn’s 55 points in the final refrain narrowed the margin to 12 by the final whistle.
Auburn heads to Nashville, Tennessee, for the SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena next week. The No. 12-seeded Tigers will play No. 13 seed Mississippi State in the second game of Wednesday’s afternoon session, scheduled for 2 p.m. CT on SEC Network. TG
