AUBURN | Even in a disappointing loss, the improvement is visible.

Auburn held No. 8 Alabama more than nine points below its scoring average in Tuesday night’s 70-58 road loss. It was also 24 points less than the Tigers allowed in a 94-90 home loss to the Tide Jan. 9.

In 17 conference games, Auburn is one of only five teams to hold Alabama to 70 points or less and only the second one to do it in Coleman Coliseum.

“Being more aggressive,” said Jaylin Williams on Auburn’s improved defense. “When we played Alabama, I think it was the fourth SEC game of the season, so we were kind of like shaky, not playing aggressive.

“But I think we played more aggressive. We played pretty aggressive man, and that helped us out a lot. Thing is, we just struggled offensively. We defended well enough to beat them. We just couldn’t score.”

It comes on the heels of a 77-72 win over Tennessee Saturday. The Tigers came into the week 12th in the SEC allowing 77.1 points per game.

The rebounding has also been an important factor in AU’s defense improvement, which has cut down on opponent’s second-chance points.

Auburn out-rebounded Alabama 46-34, which matches the largest SEC rebounding margin of the season. In the last two games, Auburn has a plus-9.5 rebounding margin.

“We had step-up defensively tonight, we did,” said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl. “But we were without our best offensive player in Sharife (Cooper); it was hard to score.”

The Tigers, 12-14 overall and 6-11 in the SEC, will return to Auburn Arena Saturday for the final game of the season against Mississippi State. It’ll be the last opportunity for one of the youngest teams in the country to build some momentum going into what should be an important offseason. Auburn is expected to return most of his talented player next season.

“I wish we would of got this dub today and then win on Saturday so we enter the offseason perfect, ready to go into the offseason,” said Williams. “But that’s not going to happen. So we have to win this Saturday. We have to be prepared for Mississippi State because they’ve got good guard and they’ve got big sizes inside. We’ve just got to get ready for them.”

Tip-off is scheduled for noon CT on SEC Network.