Mississippi State never led by more than six points, but it also never felt like the Bulldogs were going to lose.

Auburn dropped its second game in a row 64-58 in Starkville on Saturday.

A Tolu Smith dunk with 7:27 to go put the Bulldogs up for good despite the Tigers having multiple chances to take leads later in the game.

"We didn't do well," said Bruce Pearl. "We didn't execute very well. I thought, honestly -- give Mississippi State credit. They did a great job. When you get out-rebounded like we got out-rebounded, it was just something."

KILLED ON THE BOARDS

The Bulldogs are an excellent rebounding team, and they showed it on Saturday.

Mississippi State out-rebounded Auburn 45-30 and grabbed 14 offensive boards compared to the Tigers' six.

Cameron Matthews in particular did a ton of damage there posting 11 rebounds with six of them offensive.

"You know what? This is very interesting," Pearl said. "Who do you have out there at the end? I'm looking at my best defensive players. Some of those guys can be solid, but they won't make plays. Some of them can make plays, but they're not solid. At the end of both games, we didn't get stops, we didn't get rebounds. That's what cost us at Alabama. And that's partly what cost us at Mississippi State."

POOR ROAD SHOOTING

This is a week of shooting that Auburn will want to forget.

After shooting 5-of-25 from deep in Tuscaloosa, the Tigers followed that up by shooting 6-of-24 from behind the arc in Starkville.

Per Synergy, Auburn went 5-of-11 on unguarded catch-and-shoot looks, but on every other jump shot the Tigers were 2-of-20.

"We continue to struggle to shoot it on the road," Pearl said. "And we continue to, unfortunately, take some of those same shots that we're just gonna have to either have to make, or some guys are going to have to just put it away. Because it's hurting our offensive productivity when we're launching and missing like we are on the road."

JOHNI WAS GOOD, BUT

On paper, Johni Broome had a really good game as he put up 14 points, seven rebounds, three blocks and held Smith to nine points.

The issue? He only attempted seven shots, which isn't necessarily on him.

In addition to being tasked with guarding one of the best players in the SEC, Broome was forced to play 34 minutes due to foul trouble from Dylan Cardwell.

"Johni hung in there," Pearl said. "Again, Tolu Smith had 9 points. What kind of a job did Johni Broome do in there? Yeoman's work. Played great defense, played hard. They double in the post, so it was hard to get him touches on the inside. And I'm sure he was a little frustrated. He had some great baskets and some great plays himself on the inside. We probably could have done a better job of getting it to him."

JAYLIN WENT COLD

After looking like an SEC Player of the Year contender the last couple of weeks, Jaylin Williams had a dreadful week.

Williams was 6-of-19 from the field in Auburn's last two games after missing only two shots the week prior

Simply put, Auburn needs its super senior to be better, and Pearl believes he will be.

"I think J-Will will be fine," Pearl said "He didn’t shoot it as well, and that sort of set things up. He missed some things in and around the basket. Couple things that were really, really close that he had been making."