Auburn Gives Up Too Many Big Runs and Falls to Mississippi State, 79-66

Another regular season is in the books and Auburn is once again having to play in the first round of the SEC Tournament. Auburn (11-19, 5-13) started out with an 8-0 lead but then Mississippi State (14-16, 7-11) would then go on several big runs of its own to put away the Tigers and secure the 11 seed for themselves. If Auburn wanted to win this game, it  would need to play in the paint and take advantage of its size. Instead, the Tigers let Gavin Ware and other Bulldogs out-muscle them all game long. In a game where Auburn could have easily out-rebounded the Bulldogs, it ended up trailing that category by a total of  35-43. Ware led the way for Mississippi State with 12 rebounds while Cinmeon Bowers had 11 for Auburn. Bowers also added 10 points to finish with his 14th double-double of the year. Aside from the end of the first half where Auburn let Mississippi State go on a 39-12 run after taking the 8-0 lead, Auburn showed good resilience on offense and kept fighting back many times throughout the second half. The Tigers actually shot better than Mississippi State from the field finishing 25-59 (42.4%) compared to Mississippi State’s 26-62 (41.9%). Unfortunately for Auburn, Mississippi State shot 44% from deep while Auburn made just 7 of their 19 threes. TJ Lang shot 4-6 from deep and led Auburn with 16 points, but Bryce Brown had another cold game going just 1-6 from the field and finishing with just 3 points. Horace Spencer and Tyler Harris also had good games down low and each finished with 13 points. Normally 36 combined points from Bowers, Spencer, and Harris would be great for the Tigers, but in this game, they needed to get more done inside. Harris could have attacked a few more times and Bowers missed a few open shots at the basket when Auburn really needed them to cut the lead into single digits.

Not only did Bryce Brown only score 3 points for the game and make just one three pointer, his inability to guard Malik Newman and Quinddary Weatherspoon on the perimeter allowed the two Bulldogs to torch the Tigers. Newman and Weatherspoon shot a combined 7-10 from behind the arc and scored 33 points between the two of them. Luckily Newman eventually cooled off, but after starting out 6-6 from the field with 14 points, the highly touted freshman had already done enough damage to the Tigers on the way to a 19 points halftime lead. Auburn cut the deficit to 10 points or less a few times in the second half, but each time it would follow its good offensive runs with silly fouls or poor defense on the other end and Mississippi State would open up another sizable lead. This team has shown that they have the potential to be good in its current state, but they can’t afford to have key players like Bryce Brown and Jordon Granger have terrible games. If these Tigers want to make a run in the SEC Tournament like they did last year, they can’t let games get out of hand early and always have to play from behind. Auburn doesn’t need to shoot 50% from the field to win games, but it can’t continue to play lazy defense when it isn’t  making shots of their own. The bright spot for Auburn was once again Horace Spencer. The freshman was able to set another career high with 13 points while also pulling down 5 rebounds and getting 3 blocks early on. He was able to barely avoid fouling out with just 4 fouls at the end, but once again fouls were the one thing holding him back. Spencer’s offensive game has come a long way and he now has a very nice hook shot that he can fall back on to score points down low. If the freshman continues to add offensive moves to his game over the summer and works on getting blocks without fouling out of position, then he can be a very, very good player for the Tigers over the next few years. This season has had many setbacks, but even with this team finding it’s stride over the last few games, it’s clear that even their stride isn’t good enough to really compete to win night in and night out. This team is missing 1-2 more weapons and a solid leader. Those things are currently in the program so the future is still looking good, but I can’t get around saying that this season has been disappointing. Even with all things considered, Auburn had a chance to skip out on the first day of the SEC Tournament, but instead it couldn’t knock off the Bulldogs and once again will play in an opening round game of the SEC Tourney. With the loss today, Auburn is now the 13 seed in the SEC Tournament and will face Tennessee on Wednesday night at 6:00 CST. Auburn split the season series with the Volunteers, with both teams winning their home games. It will be a good matchup to watch and see who can get it done on the neutral court and move on in the SEC Tournament.