AUBURN | It’s been a season of near misses for Georgia.

No. 14 Auburn is hoping to continue that tough luck Saturday evening at Stegeman Coliseum.

“They’ve been up against good teams. They have a good home court advantage,” said center Dylan Cardwell. “Even though they’re 4-8 in the SEC, they haven’t given up. They’re still a hungry team.”

The Bulldogs led No. 5 Tennessee by 11 before losing 85-79, led No. 13 Alabama by 16 before losing 85-76, led No. 20 South Carolina by 10 before losing 72-62 and led No. 24 Florida by 11 before losing 88-82 last Saturday.

The Tigers have had their share of misfortune on the road. Five of their six losses have come away from home including 81-65 at UF, 64-58 at Mississippi State and 79-75 at UA.

“We have not played great on the road this year,” said AU coach Bruce Pearl. “We’ve got wins at Ole Miss and Arkansas and Vanderbilt, but we’ve not shot it particularly well on the road.

"But we have three more opportunities in our last five games to dispel that. Not going to be easy, but that’s the opportunity that is in front of us.”

Auburn enters the game 20-6 overall and 9-4 in the league, tied with USC for third in the SEC. The Tide lead at 11-2 followed by the Volunteers at 10-3. Both the Gators and Wildcats are knocking on the door of the top four and a two-round bye in the SEC Tournament at 8-5.

“We have five games left in the regular season,” said Pearl. “We still can finish first to seventh in this league. And we know where we want to finish, so I think the guys are locked in and pretty focused.”

Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. CT on SEC Network.