No. 1 overall seed Auburn is still alive in the NCAA Tournament and it has its 3-point defense to thank.

After No. 9 seed Creighton shot 9-of-14 from beyond the arc in the first half, the Tigers limited the Bluejays to 3-of-13 from deep in the second half, leading them to an 82-70 second-round victory.

“I would say fatigue could have been a factor in the sense that the way we guard makes Creighton work really hard to get open and get looks,” AU coach Bruce Pearl said. “It does take its toll a little bit. I thought our physicality on the rebounding and physicality being bodies on bodies, I think they were a little fatigued in the second half.”

Auburn guard Miles Kelly knew Creighton could not beat Auburn in any other way except for the 3-point shot, making it a priority for the Tigers to take it away.

“In order to win this game, they couldn’t beat us from two, the only way they could beat us was from three,” Kelly said. “We ran them off the line and limited their looks. That’s why we came out with the win.”

Kelly echoed Pearl’s point of Auburn wearing Creighton down with its style of defense, making it harder for the Bluejays to find open looks.

“Effort and energy,” Kelly said. “They do a good job of moving off the ball, setting a lot of pin-down screens and stuff like that. We did a good job of getting through those and making them go down there and take tough twos.”

While the Tigers were able to wear the Bluejays down, the same was done to them. Auburn guard Tahaad Pettiford and Co. had to dig deep, but had enough in the tank to finish the job.

“It’s definitely hard. Chasing them, you’re going to get tired,” Pettiford said. “We knew what we were walking into and we knew what kind of team they were. So we just had to wear them out on the defensive end for them to slow their fast breaks down and make them run their sets.”

The Tigers take on No. 5 seed Michigan in the Sweet 16 on Friday at Statefarm Arena in Atlanta. Tip-off time and television information is TBA.