Conference road wins don't come easy these days in the SEC.
Even against winless Vanderbilt.
What's important, however: Auburn did pull out the road victory in Nashville, only the Tigers' second of the season. Auburn (17-8, 6-6 SEC) led Vanderbilt (9-16, 0-12 SEC) for all but three minutes, going wire-to-wire in the second half, to grab the 64-53 win.
Regardless of the opponent, Auburn was in need of a true road victory, its only other one coming against Texas A&M. It was Auburn's first win against Vanderbilt in Nashville since 2000.
"I feel like we really came together through our losses, and we got the win. Man, we needed this win," Malik Dunbar said on the Auburn Radio Network after the game. "We needed a road win. This really was a must-win. We had to have this one."
The Tigers won in spite of the same road shooting woes they've experienced most of this season.
Auburn finished the game shooting 35 percent from the field and 36 percent from 3-point range. It took some streak shooting from Jared Harper, Bryce Brown and Dunbar in the second half to stabilize those percentages. The Tigers only shot 25 percent in the first half. Auburn caught a spark midway through the second half when Harper hit 3-pointers on back-to-back transition possessions — one off a screen, one off a quick pull-up at the top of the key to extend a one-score game to 40-31, a lead the Tigers held onto relatively comfortably for the rest of the contest.
Vanderbilt never truly went away in this one, however. The Commodores cut the score to four or five points on a few occasions. But the Tigers were in control throughout. Auburn only trailed for 2:57 minutes of game action, which happened exclusively in the first half.
Harper (16 points), Brown (14 points), Dunbar (13 points) and Chuma Okeke (13 points) led Auburn offensively in double figures.
"We made some big 3 balls [in the second half]," Bruce Pearl said. "We got a good win. ... I thought we took better care of the basketball, only turned it over seven times. They hurt us on the boards. We did a good job of getting us to the foul line."
Auburn still dealt with some of its other deficiencies it has this season — specifically the rebounding battle. The Tigers were out-rebounded 43-27 by the Commodores, though they weren't abused on second-chance opportunities this time.
Auburn road win shooting 35 percent and grabbing 16 less rebounds seems like a statistical challenge to pull off. It can be credited to one of the Tigers' best defensive efforts of the season. Vanderbilt only made 33 percent of their shots. The Commodores' 53 points were the least scored against Auburn by an SEC foe this season.
"We just played a complete game offensively and defensively. We played great defensively the whole game," Harper said. "We struggled to make some shots early in the game, but we kept playing defense. I think that was the difference in the game."
Auburn's next game is at home Wednesday against Arkansas.
Pearl said after the game on the Auburn Radio Network that Samir Doughty was held out of practice Thursday and wasn't 100 percent, which is a big reason why Dunbar started the second half.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Harper — Including the aforementioned game-turning shots, Harper finished with 16 point on 40 percent shooting. He added eight assists.
PLAYS OF THE GAME: Malik Dunbar block — Before Harper could nail a pair of transition 3s to separate the score some, it took an effort play on the defensive end. Vanderbilt had what looked to be a breakaway layup to make it a one-point game five minutes into the second half. Dunbar had other ideas. He blocked the shot with his right hand and, just for good measure, swatted it with his left hand off the glass to spark a transition possession the other way.
STAT OF THE NIGHT: 0 points off turnovers — That's how many Vanderbilt had in this game. It was a point of emphasis after the loss to Ole Miss. It showed in the win against the Commodores. Auburn only turned it over seven times (compared to 19 for Vanderbilt), but it didn't allow any buckets followed those turnovers (Tigers scored 17 points off turnover themselves).
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT: Bruce Pearl on Auburn crowd in Nashville — "You have to start with the crowd. One of the thing I'm always amazed about with SEC athletics, especially football, is the pageantry, it just means more and the crowd travels. If we can get that going in basketball, and I know it's difficult, but our fans showed out in this one. The atmosphere up here in Nashville was incredible."
