Published Mar 4, 2020
Auburn's home win streak snapped with loss to Texas A&M
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Nathan King  •  AuburnSports
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Auburn didn’t have a home comeback in it this time.

In their final home game of the season — on Senior Night — the Tigers’ 19-game home winning streak was snapped as they fell to Texas A&M, 78-75 on Wednesday evening.

"We had expectations of winning this game, but I guess they were the better team tonight," said senior Auburn guard Samir Doughty.

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Auburn couldn’t kick the 3-point bug — or find any reliable offense, for that matter — against Texas A&M's zone defense in the first half, and that ultimately doomed it for the remainder of the contest.

After Doughty made their first two triples of the game, the Tigers missed 12 of their next 13 from long range as the Aggies climbed out of an 11-point hole in the early minutes of the game to take a nine-point lead seconds before the half.

Through the first 20 minutes, Auburn had 13 turnovers and 11 fouls to just nine made shots, and it made just one basket over the final seven minutes of the period.

"We talked about making one more pass; sometimes we didn't do that," Doughty said. "Everything was correctable. But credit to them — they played great defense throughout the game, especially in the first half."

Auburn was improved shooting out of the break, as Doughty was connecting from long range and Isaac Okoro was strong going to the basket. But every time the Tigers punched, Texas A&M had a blow to counter, keeping its lead for the entirety of the second half.

"We were better offensively in the second half," said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. "But defensively in the second half, we didn’t have the same kind of effort and energy."

Pearl keyed two technical fouls called against his bench — one on the head coach, one on assistant coach Steven Pearl — as a momentum-shifter with 16 minutes left in the game.

An official called Steven Pearl for a technical foul, then Bruce Pearl got one for arguing.

"I was in my box. I didn't cuss," Bruce Pearl said. "I was protesting the contact and didn't think our bench needed to get hit twice. I didn't think our bench needed to get hit once."

Aggies big man Josh Nebo helped them win around the basket with 19 points on the night before he fouled out.

"Our post defense really, really, really hurt us tonight," Bruce Pearl said. "They've got a good post offensive player in Nebo, but we just got stuck behind him and didn't front him to a fault, which is what our plan was, and as a result they really hurt us at the rim."

Doughty was Auburn's offensive leader with 25 points — his most in an SEC contest since dropping 26 against LSU last month. The senior guard went 10-for-11 from the foul line and was 5-of-9 shooting from deep.

The Aggies never led by double digits, but down the stretch, Auburn couldn’t get stops when it needed them. The visitors made eight of their final 12 shots.

Auburn made things interesting late, however. The Aggies missed three free throws in the final minute and J'Von McCormick hit a 3-pointer with 8 seconds left. The lead was 78-75 as Auburn got the ball back, but Danjel Purifoy missed a would-be tying shot from just inside halfcourt as the buzzer expired.

Texas A&M is now 5-0 in Auburn Arena and has won six consecutive road games against the Tigers.

Auburn closes the regular season Saturday at Tennessee.

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