Another sluggish start from Auburn led to its third straight conference loss, falling 85-76 to No. 19 Vanderbilt on Tuesday night in Neville Arena.
The loss dropped the Tigers below .500 in conference play and marked Vanderbilt’s first win in the series since 2023 and first on the Plains since 2016.
“Credit to Vanderbilt. They did a great job. Played really well early tonight,” said Auburn head coach Steven Pearl. “We had a great environment tonight again. I want to continue to thank our fans for hanging in there with this team as we’re trying to work through some things. They did their part; we didn’t do ours. For that, I apologize. I’ve got to do a better job as their coach in these situations.”
Auburn faced an 11-point deficit at halftime after recording 31 first-half points – its second-lowest mark of the season – while shooting a 32 percent clip from the field. Vanderbilt, meanwhile, shot 57 percent and dominated the paint 20-6 in the opening half.
The Tigers rallied to tie the game at 26 with just over six minutes remaining before the break, sparked by second-chance opportunities (10) and free throws (eight). But a loose-ball foul on Filip Jovic was upgraded to a Flagrant I after review, igniting a 16-5 Vanderbilt run to close the half.
Vanderbilt opened the second half with another strong surge, building a 14-point lead – the same lead it held with just over nine minutes remaining. Auburn answered with a 6-0 run to bring a quiet Neville Arena to its feet, but Vanderbilt’s Tyler Tanner connected on a deep triple to silence the crowd and push the lead back to double digits.
Auburn trimmed the deficit to four with nearly two minutes remaining after a 12-2 run, but Vanderbilt responded with a quick 9-2 stretch, ultimately sealing the win.
“The last eight minutes, the group we had out there did a great job of fighting back,” Pearl said. “(Vanderbilt) did a great job executing down the stretch. Another disappointing result.”
Tahaad Pettiford recorded 21 points, marking back-to-back 20-point outings for the sophomore point guard.
“He really battled tonight,” Pearl said of Pettiford. “He put in a great effort. That’s something we’re going to need from him moving forward. He did our best job of getting downhill and finishing at the rim.”
Vanderbilt’s Tanner and Jalen Washington comibed four 47 points, finishing with 25 and 22, respectively, as Auburn went 4-9 in Quad I affairs.
Auburn will travel to Bud Walton Arena on Saturday to face No. 21 Arkansas at 7:30 p.m CT on ESPN.
“We continue to have great opportunities in front of us,” Pearl said. “We’ve got to find a way to improve. While the results haven’t been there, this team continues to get better. We’ve got to trust what we’re doing, but we’ve also got to tweak things we’re doing defensively.
“We’ve got to find a way to steal a couple on the road and then try to protect home court later in the season. The only way we’re going to do that is if we refocus and come back ready to go (at practice) on Thursday.” TG
