It wasn’t pretty but you better believe Auburn will take it.
Missouri pulled down 25 offensive rebounds, Auburn missed 15 free throws and the two teams combined for 55 fouls. At times Bruce Pearl wasn’t even sure if he was coaching basketball.
But it was the visiting Tigers that held on for a 77-72 win at Mizzou Arena.
“We didn’t play very well,” Pearl said. “We played a lot of guys. I felt like I was a hockey coach. We were just sending them on the boards. We were changing lines out there.
“Twenty five offensive rebounds, that’s ridiculous. But that’s a team in Missouri that’s fighting for their lives, playing hard. They missed a lot of shots. When you shoot 32 percent and you miss 46 shots, there’s a lot of rebounding opportunities.”
Auburn picked up its first conference win to improve to 11-5 overall and 1-3 in the SEC while Missouri fell to 5-10 and 0-3.
After starting the game 0-of-9 from the floor, Mustapha Heron scored seven of Auburn’s final 11 points including a key 3-pointer with 2:16 left in the game.
Heron, who injured his ankle in Monday’s practice, led Auburn with 16 points and nine rebounds. He scored 12 of his points in the second half on 4-of-6 shooting.
“I think we kind of got off to a little bit of a slow start, especially myself,” Heron said, “but we fought threw it, we fought hard, we stayed together and made some big plays down the stretch.”
Auburn shot just 55 percent from the free throw line but was 6-of-6 in the final minute.
Bryce Brown made 4-of-8 3-pointers to score 13 and Ronnie Johnson added 13 points and four assists. Horace Spencer had 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting, five rebounds and three blocked shots. Austin Wiley had five points, three rebounds and four blocks while playing just 10 minutes due to foul trouble.
Auburn had a season-high 12 blocked shots.
“They got the ball in a little too easy. We’ve got to do a better job of not letting them get the ball in there because we’re not going to block 12 against Kentucky Saturday,” Pearl said.
Auburn was without Danjel Purifoy, who injured his ankle against Ole Miss Saturday. Purifoy is averaging 13.7 points per game and leads Auburn in minutes played.
Pearl started Anfernee McLemore at the power forward and also rotated in LaRon Smith, TJ Lang and Devin Waddell at Purifoy’s spot.
“The loss of Danjel is just huge. Nobody can really replace him,” Pearl said.
Auburn returns to action Saturday at No. 6 Kentucky. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT on ESPN.
“It’s going to be a grind,” Pearl said. “We’re good enough to beat anybody but we’re also bad enough to lose to anybody, and that’s just the way it’s going to be.”
