Tough home loss for Tigers
AUBURN | Not even a career night from Chuma Okeke could rescue Auburn.
Ole Miss made 13 3-pointers, at least five with little to no time left on the shot clock, to earn a 60-55 upset win over the Tigers Wednesday night at Auburn Arena.
Auburn shot a season-low 32.7 percent from the floor including 5 of 20 3-pointers.
“A disappointing loss,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “Ole Miss did the things they needed to do to come in here and get a win on the road. They made big shots late on the shot clock, they controlled the tempo of the game with their guards.”
Okeke finished with a career-high 23 points along with 11 rebounds, but it wasn’t enough to overcome poor performances by both Bryce Brown and Jared Harper.
“Okeke had a dominating game,” Pearl said. “We went to him as much as we possibly could, probably could have gone to him even more. He clearly won his position, but we lost every place else on the floor.”
Brown and Harper combined to shoot just 3 of 20 from the floor and 2 of 12 from beyond the arc. Brown had an SEC-low eight points while Harper tied his season-high with six turnovers.
“I’d like to be able to win a basketball game when Jared doesn’t have a good game,” Pearl said. “And I just don’t know in the last couple of years how many times we’ve won when he doesn’t play well. He plays well, we win. He doesn’t play well, I can’t remember a game we’ve won. And that’s just not right.”
Auburn got within three points on a pair of free throws by Harper with 1:54 left. The Tiger forced a turnover but couldn’t convert on the offensive end as a short jumper by Brown rimmed out and a tap-in by Horace Spencer wouldn’t fall.
Okeke came up with a block on the next possession but a rushed 3-pointer by Harper didn’t fall with 35 seconds left and AU didn’t foul Ole Miss until just 12 second were left.
Breein Tyree made both free throws to lead the Rebels with 20 points.
The loss drops Auburn to 16-8 overall and 5-6 in the SEC while Ole Miss improves to 17-7 and 7-4 in the conference. The Rebels sweep the season series after opening SEC play with a 15-point win over Auburn.
Auburn had 14 turnovers including eight in the first half while Ole Miss had 13. Both teams had 34 rebounds apiece. The Rebels shot 37.3 percent from the floor including 13 of 33 3-pointers.
Auburn returns to action Saturday at Vanderbilt. Tip-off is scheduled for 11 a.m. CT on ESPNU.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Okeke’s 23 points came on 8 of 11 shooting from the floor including 2 of 3 from 3-point range. He added 11 rebounds for the seventh double-double of his career, two steals, one block and three turnovers in 33 minutes.
PLAY OF THE GAME: None. This was an extremely poor performance by Auburn at home, leading for just 21 seconds early in the first half.
STAT OF THE NIGHT: Auburn’s 32.7 percent shooting is just below the 32.8 they shot in a loss at Ole Miss Jan. 9.
QUOTE OF THE NIGHT: Pearl on the offense: “Sometimes you have to work hard offensively to get what you want. And I told the guys going into this prep, I said, ‘Look, they’re going to make things difficult on us and we’ve got to work harder offensively.’ We turned the ball over 16 times at Ole Miss — seven assists, 14 turnovers — just did not work hard offensively, did not execute.”