Auburn falters in another tight game

Nashville | It was another late-game heartbreak for Auburn.

The Tigers dropped another close game, this time, to Vanderbilt, 67-65 in Memorial Gymnasium on Saturday.

The two-point loss pushed Auburn's record to 3-5 in games decided by five points or fewer. The Tigers' last win in such a game was on Dec. 28 against Florida.

Auburn's crunch-time offense wasn't the issue as it put up eight points in the final 3:24, rather, the defense was the issue. Auburn allowed 10 Commodore points in the same stretch of minutes with six of those points coming from the line.

It's not just the game against Vanderbilt. USC put up seven points in the final minute of a three-point Auburn loss. West Virginia had nine points in the last two minutes of a three-point loss Auburn loss. Texas A&M had nine points in the final three minutes of a five-point Auburn loss.

"To win at the end, you have to get stops," said Coach Bruce Pearl. "And you have to get the foul line. We never even got into the bonus in the second half. You win by getting stops and getting to the free-throw line.

Now, what went wrong on the final play for Auburn?

Auburn did not pressure Ezra Manjon as he walked up the court.

Manjon slightly fakes as if he's driving right. It's a subtle movement, but that, combined with the high ball screen, took Jaylin Williams and Zep Jasper completely out of the play

From there, Cardwell is too high and isn't able to recover.

On that final possession, Pearl elected to take Wendell Green and Johni Broome out of the game.

"Put Zep in to pressure the ball," Pearl said. "Put Dylan in maybe as a rim protector. And we're switching everything. The idea was that 5 would go downhill, so put some size at the rim. And unfortunately, he came with a head of steam. Zep didn't do much to slow him down and he turned a corner on Jaylin."

It was another tight loss for the Tigers, but it wasn't all bad in the clutch.

Coming off his best performance of the season, Johnson was quiet on Saturday, but he hit the Tigers' biggest shot of the night to tie the game at 65 with 11 seconds left.

It was a clutch shot that Auburn really hadn't hit all season.

"He was open, so he pulled. K.D.'s got courage," Pearl said. "He had an open shot and he made it. It was right in front of me, so I kind of just let him go out into space and open up the floor. He decided to pull it. He's made shots late for us before."