Auburn lost its sixth game in its last seven on Tuesday, 91-79, as Oklahoma shot a devastating 68% from beyond the arc. Even with two Tigers reaching 26 points, four Sooners in double digits and all above 50% from the field was just too much for Auburn to overcome.
For the first game in Norman in the series’ history, both teams started hot. Auburn started with four of five made baskets, with Kevin Overton making two of the four, but it was Oklahoma’s Pack and Mohamed Wague that would take over the game. With Pack’s three threes and Wague’s ten in just the first ten minutes, it would take great play from Overton and Filip Jovic just to stay in the game
Heading out after the under-16 media timeout, it was a back-and-forth offensive game between the game’s big men, as Jovic’s six points, including two dunks, went against Oklahoma’s Wague’s seven. Then, after the under-12 media timeout, Oklahoma finally started to pull away. Following a separate three-minute and two-and-a-half minute scoring drought for Auburn, a three-point barrage by Pack and Jadon Jones pushed Oklahoma’s lead to double digits with just a couple minutes to go in the half.
Auburn’s Elyjah Freeman, trying to carry over his late-half magic from Saturday’s game into the last couple of minutes of the first half with a couple of buckets, was met late with some more of Oklahoma’s hot shooting. Though Auburn was finishing the half on a stretch of making two of their last 10 shooting, Xzayvier Brown hit a buzzer-beater three to push Oklahoma’s lead to nine and kill any of the Tigers' momentum.
Early in the second half, Auburn made shots behind Kevin Overton’s 26 points and five threes, but they were often rare and minutes apart. Auburn’s scoreless droughts were often coincided by Oklahoma’s quartet of double-digit scorers, using 11 threes to give them an early double-digit lead. The Sooners finished the day going 13-19 from three and a red-hot 52% from the field, led by Nijel Pack and his 6-8 from beyond the arc.
As the second half came to a close, Auburn showed some urgency to cut the lead down to just single digits, but the Tigers could not stop Mohamed Wague from getting to the line. The Sooners' big man finished with 18 points, scoring 10 of those from the free-throw line down the stretch.
After the game, Steven Pearl reprimanded his team’s effort, calling upon them to play better in the last games of the season.
“Saturday is a must-win. ... We have to play desperate… We have to do everything opposite of what we did tonight. We were entitled tonight,’ Pearl said, “We were selfish tonight on the defensive end. We had no urgency. That's unacceptable”.
Now sitting at just 15-13 with three games left, Pearl and the Auburn Tigers will likely view every game as a must-win opportunity in order to make the NCAA tournament. The Tigers will begin that goal as they host Ole Miss on Saturday at 7:30 CST in Neville Arena on the SEC Network.
