NASHVILLE | As a sort of punishment, Bruce Pearl kept Chad Baker-Mazara out of the lineup on Friday after he received a costly Flagrant 2 in Saturday's loss to Alabama.

Baker-Mazara understood why he was coming off the bench, and while the guard didn't have a great game scoring-wise, his defense and passing helped the Tigers hold on against Ole Miss in the quarterfinals of the 2025 SEC Tournament.

"A lot of those balls that went into Johni Broome went in from Chad Baker-Mazara, six assists, one turnover," Bruce Pearl pointed out. "He got a chance to play point guard for us. Ball in his hands, good things are going to happen."

It was the good Baker-Mazara against the Rebels, something his teammates and Pearl can't always count on. In every scouting report on Auburn, it likely highlights that you can get under the skin of the Dominican Republic native.

His coach certainly knows that.

"Look, the opponents are going to see if they can get underhis skin and see if he will retaliate," Pearl said. "He can't do that."

There was no retaliation, but plenty of key plays from the senior. With under two minutes to go and Auburn holding onto a six-point lead, Baker-Mazara caught a pass on a fast break and dunked the ball while getting fouled. Suddenly, the Tigers' lead was nine.

That followed a first half in which Baker-Mazara wasn't producing.

"He's so hard on himself," Pearl said. "I need you to be there and locked in and don't let the bad plays affect you. He's too hard on himself. You could see in the first half, he wasn't great."