AUBURN | Bruce Pearl said it succinctly after No. 11 Auburn’s 82-67 loss at Ole Miss Wednesday night. The Rebels were tougher and more physical.

He expects his players to respond Saturday against visiting Georgia.

“Sometimes when you're on the road, you've got to play through contact more. You've just got to be able to score. Don't play for the foul, go make the basket,” Pearl said. “Austin (Wiley), for example, he got to the foul line eight times. You probably could've gotten more, but he was 0 for 5 as far as two-point field goals go. Chuma (Okeke) only had the one and-one bucket — we only had one bucket at that position.

“So we've got to get it in there to them, we've got to do a better job of getting it to them, and we've got to do a better job of finishing through contact.”

Wiley, Auburn’s starting center, and Okeke, the starting forward, will be tested again by the Bulldogs, which feature a big and physical frontline led by 6-foot-11 center Nicolas Claxton, 6-foot-9 forward Derek Ogbeide and 6-foot-8 forward Rayshaun Hammonds. Claxton is averaging 12.4 points, 9.9 rebounds and 3.1 blocks per game.

“I think the thing that jumps out at you is offensive rebounding and blocked shots. They’re really, really long,” Pearl said. Their front line goes 6-9 and Hammonds can play three and four. Claxton is 6-10 and averages three blocks per game and a lot of people think he’s a terrific pro prospect. He’s pretty highly rated and very versatile.

“Ogbeide, who was Jared’s teammate at Pebblebrook, is a big guy we’ve seen for years. You can see now that Maten is gone he has been crowned. He’s a much better player, much more athletic and much faster and quicker. Obviously you know what kind of powerful player he is.”

Georgia is 9-5 on the season but is coming off an 82-63 win over Vanderbilt. The Tigers, 11-3, are looking for their first conference win. Tip-off at Auburn Arena is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT on ESPN2.

"I don’t know if they’re as good as last year but I do know they’re probably a little bigger, which will cause some challenges for us,” senior Bryce Brown said. “We could probably play a little faster against them because of that, get the speed of the game sped up. I feel like that will catch them off guard.

“I still feel like they’re a pretty good team just because of how aggressive they are on the glass. That will be a thing for us: keeping them off the glass. Forcing them to not use their size over us.”