AUBURN, Alabama (EETV) – The Auburn Tigers suffered yet another tough road loss, this time to the Tennessee Volunteers, 62-67. Auburn drops to 25-4 with two games left in the regular season.
Three-point shooting and rebounding proved again to be the Tiger's biggest struggle this season. The Tigers made only 20.7 percent of their shots from beyond the arch in Saturday's game against the Volunteers, and The Vols outrebounded the Tigers by 23 rebounds.
"We need more guys to step up offensively," Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. "we've got more step-up in us, half court offense continues to you know struggle, not getting great looks, Tennessee’s a good defensive team, that's what's going to happen when you play against a good defensive team, we're obviously here late February not playing our best offense and no excuses with the rebounding.”
Auburn's loss today can also be contributed to a lack of points from the bench, which only managed to score five points throughout the game.
“Very difficult, very difficult," Pearl said. "Can't be afraid to fail and you gotta be able to produce when you're out there. I would even like to play the bench more, but it was hard.”
After a back-and-forth first half, Auburn was able to come away with an 11 point lead at the end of the first half. Auburn went on a 13-0 run with Allen Flanigan able to put up back-to-back buckets, KD Johnson hitting a deep three, and Jabari Smith, in the closing minutes, was able to hit a step-back three that brought the score to 31-25.
Auburn would come out firing in the second half, scoring nine of the first 12 points to make the score 39-28. Following that, Auburn would go on an eight-minute drought leading to Tennessee taking the lead 45-41.
“Turned it over, didn't make shots didn't execute, we didn't get good point guard play tonight," Pearl said.
Late in the second half, Auburn still had a chance to win the game with an amazing four-point play by Jabari Smith, that capped a 7-0 run and cut the lead to three. On the opposite end, the Volunteers answered with a basket to increase the score and end the game with the final score being 67-62.
Auburn travels to Mississippi State on Wednesday night for another challenging road game for a chance to clinch a share the regular-season title. The game is set to tip-off at 8 P.M. CT and will be televised on SEC Network.
