After a 22-point thumping of Arkansas over the weekend, Auburn basketball (10-7 overall) slugged its way to a 1-3 start in SEC play with an 84-74 loss to Missouri on Tuesday night at Mizzou Arena in Columbia, Missouri.
“I’ve got to do a better job of getting our guys into the right mindset,” said Auburn head coach Steven Pearl. “We need some leadership on this team to step up. We’ve got to take advantage of every opportunity, and we didn’t do that tonight.”
With Auburn’s leading scoring threat in Keyshawn Hall enduring a rare off night – scoring just 10 points with six coming at the charity stripe – Kevin Overton and Elyjah Freeman each scored 13 points to lead all Auburn scorers.
The duo combined for five of the Tigers’ six 3-pointers, with the rest of the team going 1-for-10 from beyond the arc.
Sebastian Williams-Adams shot 4-of-5 from the field, burying his only 3-point attempt, and went 3-for-3 from the free-throw line to total 12 points before fouling out with 4:56 left to play.
“He played really well in the minutes he played,” Pearl said. “He was plus-1 in 19. If he plays 30 minutes in this game, the outcome is different because he is so productive and so accountable for that. The first one was a clear foul, but I thought he got a tough whistle as the game went on. He’s an energy boost, and the guys feed off all the things he does.”
The visiting Tigers turned the ball over seven times in the second half, giving way to a double-digit Missouri lead.
“We let some bad offense affect our defense in the second half,” Pearl said. “It led to them getting a lot of uncontested layups or getting to the foul line.”
After going down by 13 points with just over four minutes remaining, Auburn clawed its way back and cut Missouri’s lead to four with under two minutes remaining.
But Auburn hit just one of its last eight attempts from the field while Missouri netted its last three to pull away and improve to 11-0 on its home floor.
“We let some distractions creep in and affect performance,” Pearl said. “It’s hard enough to win on the road. We can’t make it more difficult on ourselves like we did tonight.”
Auburn returns to Neville Arena on Saturday to host South Carolina at 5 p.m. CT. The game will broadcast on SEC Network. TG
