AUBURN | In his six seasons at Auburn, Bruce Pearl has coached against Alabama 13 times. He knows this rivalry well.

But Wednesday night wasn’t like those previous meetings against the Tide. For Pearl and his players, and Alabama too, there was more at stake than just bragging rights.

“You know typically when you play Alabama, it’s really all about the rivalry, it’s all about Auburn-Alabama, it’s about the Iron Bowl, it’s about two schools in the state that compete. This one wasn’t about that. We never felt it, still don’t feel it,” Pearl said. “It was about Auburn trying to stay alive in a championship race, our rival with an opportunity to really take us out of it by beating us, which would have been twice.

“For Alabama coming in, looking at their schedule and their record, if they were able to win here tonight and possibly — now LSU they’ve got a real shot at because LSU is real good but Alabama is real good too — they kinda needed this one real badly and they played like it.”

The Tigers’ 95-91 overtime put them back in a three-way tie with No. 12 Kentucky and No. 25 LSU atop the SEC Standings with 9-2 conference records. Auburn plays at Missouri Saturday while Kentucky hosts Ole Miss and LSU is at Alabama.

The Tide dropped to 13-11 overall and 5-6 in the SEC, tied with Texas A&M for eighth in the conference. In the NCAA NET rankings, Auburn is up to No. 13 while Alabama sits at No. 39

ESPN’s Bubble Watch has Auburn as a lock for the NCAA Tournament, Kentucky and LSU as should be in, and Arkansas, Florida and Mississippi State with work to do. That means the Tide has work to do just to get in the bubble discussion.

For Auburn, it’s about chasing its second SEC regular season championship in three years and fifth in program history, and trying to improve its seeding in the NCAA Tournament.

Auburn was projected as a No. 4 seed by the NCAA Men’s Basketball Selection Committee Monday. ESPN’s Joe Lunardi, CBS Sports’ Jerry Palm and USA Today currently project Auburn as a No. 3 seed in Tampa. Selection Sunday is March 15.

Saturday’s game at Missouri is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT on ESPN2.