Steven Pearl teaches Hugh Freeze how to take accountability after Auburn hoops loss

The Auburn basketball program is under new leadership, and Tigers head coach Steven Pearl is already proving that he is up to the task at hand, even though his team suffered a loss in its first exhibition game of the season.

The No. 20 Auburn Tigers lost 95-97 to the Oklahoma State Cowboys in their first game of the year, and afterwards, Pearl had the perfect response to the loss.

"You can't overreact to one result. Obviously, we play the game to win the game and disappointed that we weren't able to come out and beat a good, but a shorthanded, Oklahoma State team," Pearl said. "We as coaches did a really bad job of taking the ball out of their hands. That’s 100 percent on me.”

What went wrong for Auburn basketball vs. Oklahoma State?

While Pearl is right about struggling to take the ball out of the Cowboys' hands, Auburn forcing just 18 turnovers in the matchup, the Tigers also struggled to rebound on the defensive end of the court, while Oklahoma State did not.

OSU earned 37 defensive rebounds while Auburn was able to come down with just 26 boards on the defensive side of things. In total, the Cowboys had nine more total rebounds than the Tigers, something that won't be sustainable over the rest of the season.

Oklahoma State also shot significantly better than Auburn did, the Cowboys cashing in nearly 50 percent of their field goals with the Tigers shooting an abysmal 35.6 percent from the field.

The biggest reason that the final result was so close was that the Cowboys found themselves in foul trouble, sending the Tigers to the charity strip for 40 shots, which they made 35 of. Meanwhile, Oklahoma State only shot 29 total free throws and sank 21 of them.

Up next, Auburn will face the Memphis Tigers in another exhibition game, scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 30, at 7:30 p.m. CT.