On Jan. 21, 2017, Austin Wiley faced Alabama for the first time in his Auburn career.

The son of Auburn women's basketball legend Vickie Orr and 1994 SEC leading rebounder Aubrey Wiley suited up against his family's long-time rival school just 13 days after turning 18 years old.

He put on a show in Auburn Arena, scoring 19 points and corralling nine rebounds in a blowout victory over the Tide.

That was his first game in the rivalry. And what was possibly the last for the senior was equally as memorable.

“In our family, we have to beat Alabama," Wiley said. "It’s special to be able to do that my senior year.”

In the No. 11 Tigers' Wednesday, 95-91 overtime win over Alabama, Wiley corralled a career-high 17 rebounds, blocked a career-high five shots and was Auburn's second-leading scorer with 18 points on 6-of-9 shooting.

His Hollinger measure of productivity — an overall efficiency metric found in the advanced box score — was the highest of any player on the court at 24.2. That was even better than Alabama point guard Kira Lewis Jr., who recorded just the second triple double in program history.

"He takes a lot of contact in there," Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said of Wiley. "That’s all I can tell you. He wanted the ball and I thought we did a better job of getting it to him and he did a great job of finishing."

As Pearl noted, Auburn was effective getting the ball to Wiley inside, but as usual, he did most of his damage cleaning up the glass and getting put-back baskets to go. Wiley grabbed eight offensive rebounds on the night while recording his 10th double-double of the year.

Pearl said Wiley has had his eye on capturing the league rebounding crown this season, like his father did 26 years ago. The younger Wiley is currently second in the SEC in total boards this season (225), behind Mississippi State's Reggie Perry (238).

“Going into this season I knew that rebounding was a focal point for me," Wiley said. "It would be cool to lead the league in rebounding. I just grab every one that I can to help my team win. If I can do that, I’m happy.”

As a team Auburn had 20 offensive rebounds, its most since it had 22 against Gardner-Webb in December 2017.

Its 60 total rebounds against the Tide marked the most for the Tigers in SEC play in the Pearl era.

Granted, that was a matchup both sides expected. Alabama ran almost all of its offense from behind the arc, with an SEC record 22 made triples and record 59 attempts. Still, when it went inside, it hit on 7-of-22 around the rim. Wiley nearly blocked as many shots in the paint as Alabama made.

Wiley's gravity was something Alabama coach Nate Oats knew his squad couldn't ignore. They tired their best to stay away from him, but they couldn't stop him from feasting on the boards all night.

"That was a huge point of emphasis going into this game," Oats said. "If Wiley is going to demolish us on the boards, it’s going to be hard to win the game."

Although Wiley played at a high level — blocking five shots to just one foul committed, and helping put Alabama in foul trouble with his usual double-digit free-throw attempts (11) — Pearl thinks the senior center still has potential to have an even bigger impact from a rim-protecting and rebounding standpoint down the stretch of the regular season.

"I mean, he had 17 rebounds and he dropped two or three," Pearl said. "He could’ve had a 20-rebound night."

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