Auburn basketball falls to .500 in OT heartbreaker against Ole Miss

Auburn basketball was well on their way to snapping a two-game losing streak–one in which the Tigers had taken two hard hits from rival Georgia and No. 2 Baylor–until a late collapse led to a one-score loss.

Ole Miss guard Devontae Shuler hit a long two-pointer at the buzzer to carry his team to a victory over Auburn in overtime with a final score of 86-84. After leading at the half, the Tigers’ defense could not get a stop in the final seconds of overtime.

AuburnTigers.com reported head coach Bruce Pearl’s thoughts on the loss:

"“Our guys have done a really good job of competing and fighting and playing hard,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. “We played really well tonight. We did a lot of really good things. You score 84 against Ole Miss? Man. Now I thought we had some careless turnovers. That was a real problem for us. But our guys are competing until the end. The pressure was a factor. We turned them over. Just didn’t finish.”"

Despite the loss, star freshman Sharife Cooper recorded his third double-double of the season, scoring 15 points and collecting 14 assists. Sophomore Devan Cambridge got his first start since January 6 against Ole Miss, and he recorded a season-high of 16 points while also grabbing a team-high seven rebounds.

Four of Auburn’s five starters ended in double figures in addition to Dylan Cardwell’s career-high 10 points off the bench. Cardwell had four dunks in the game, as well as six rebounds.

According to Sharife Cooper, the team isn’t giving any excuses for the third straight loss, despite being an extremely young team.

When it came down to the final minutes of overtime, the Tigers could not get a stop and could not match Devontae Shuler and Romello White. Hopefully, Auburn basketball will earn a much-needed win in their next game on the road against Vanderbilt this Tuesday.