T.J. Dunans Returns But Auburn Loses Tyler Harris in Loss to Ole Miss

This game was nothing more than a decent game in front of a decent crowd. Decent just wasn’t good enough and Auburn (10-16, 4-10) falls to Ole Miss (17-10, 7-7) and loses Tyler Harris to injury in the process.

Auburn came out with a pretty good energy and jumped out to a 7-0 lead to get things started. They were moving the ball around on offense well and making the shots they needed to. Eventually Ole Miss started making their shots as well, especially with Stefan Moody heating up quickly. While Auburn is definitely happy to get T.J. Dunans back from injury, the guard was definitely a little rusty and that led to a few sloppy possessions for the Tigers after subbing in early in the game. Dunans eventually got it going as the game moved along, but I have a feeling the initial sloppiness put Auburn behind in a game that would have been beneficial to hold a lead.

After their initial lead, the Tigers ended up trailing for the rest of the game, but showed great fight by keeping it between 5-12 points for most of the night. Unfortunately, every time Auburn would hit a big shot to pull within 3-5 points, Ole Miss would respond with a big shot of their own.

Stefan Moody finished with 23 points with many of his shots coming at key times to keep Auburn and the crowd from getting back in the game. Moody once again showed that he is one of the best players in the conference.

The big turning point in the game was when Tyler Harris went down after sustaining significant contact in a play under the basket. Harris is dealing with a concussion, but depending on the severity, there’s a small chance he won’t miss too much time. Harris led with 13 points at the half, but with his injury coming early in the second half he finished with exactly that much. Harris was attacking the basket early and getting to the free throw line often.

Bowers said in his post game comments that Auburn would have won that game if Harris had stayed in and I think I agree with him. Tyler Harris has been scoring very well in the last two games, and in the second half of this game Auburn really needed a few more points.

Cinmeon Bowers managed to finish with another double-double, including 11 points and 18 rebounds. Led by Bowers, Auburn was able to out-rebound Ole Miss 47-26, which is an odd stat to have in a loss. Bowers continues to show that he wants to lead this team to wins, but he’s going to need some help as well.

Bryce Brown cooled down significantly with just 9 points on 3-of-9 shooting from three. TJ Lang also only contributed 4 points on 1-of-7 from three.

After a road game in which Auburn seemingly couldn’t miss, the Tigers went relatively cold once again. Auburn finished the game shooting just 33 percent from the floor and 25 percent from three. Despite missing most of the second half, Harris still finished with the team-high 13 points as Auburn was only able to score 59 in the loss. The Tigers can continue to play better defense, but they’re an offensive team that needs to score their points to get the wins. I thought the home crowd would help continue the great play from the Arkansas game, but I guess I was wrong.

Other than being a little rusty, T.J. Dunans did remind Auburn fans what he’s capable of. Dunans was a little slow on the defensive end likely due to his knee, but still managed to record 2 blocks. As Dunans now gets a full 2-3 days to practice with the team, I expect him to be a major difference in the Georgia game on Wednesday night. With him returning to the lineup, Cinmeon Bowers doesn’t have to play the point guard spot as often. Bowers is still more than capable of bringing the ball up the court, but now he has another great player to help him out.

Dunans only scored 7 points in his return, but that might end up being his lowest point total for the rest of the season. He’s a super explosive player for Auburn that can finish at the rim and his return is a huge boost for Auburn.

Many fans will point to fouls as being the reason for this loss, and they have their right to complain. Like almost all games, the refs did not lose this game for Auburn, but they made their fair share of questionable calls. I remember a missed goal tending and quite a few really touchy fouls that probably, or certainly, shouldn’t have been called. Regardless, Auburn only made 60.7 percent of their 28 free throw attempts, and couldn’t take advantage of the prime opportunities to get the free points. This game was just a ton of sequences of Auburn starting to cut into the lead and then having the momentum taken away, either by a big shot from Ole Miss or a whistle from the officials.

It was a good showing for the Tigers, but unfortunately, they weren’t able to get a win in a game that could have easily gone that way. Bruce Pearl was proud of the effort, and so am I. Auburn showed that they can lose a game without it looking completely awful, and that’s at least a step in the right direction. Losing Tyler Harris is a big blow for Auburn, but getting T.J. Dunans back might be a fair trade. Auburn just can’t get anything good without getting something bad in return, and that’s just how this year has gone.

Auburn will return to Auburn Arena to face its rival the Georgia Bulldogs on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. CST. The game will be televised and Auburn has a good shot at getting win number five in conference play. The Georgia game is probably Auburn’s last good shot at a win, and the Tigers will need to capitalize.