Observations: Alabama 96, Auburn 92

Auburn was up 10 late in the first half. But bad defensive habits returned at the worst time, and the Tigers lost a rivalry shootout it didn't want.

AUBURN — On your home floor, 92 points should be plenty.

That’s the main message Steven Pearl wanted to send Saturday after his Auburn team lost to rival Alabama by four points inside Neville Arena.

“We scored 92 points,” Pearl said. “We’ve got to be able to win that game scoring 92 points. It has nothing to do with our offense. It has everything to do with our defense. Our defense has to get better.”

Auburn has now lost five SEC games this season. In three of them, the Tigers scored 88 or more points in regulation.

Auburn scored 90 at Georgia before falling in overtime. Auburn officially scored 88 after a last-second buzzer-beater 3 was wiped off. And, now, Auburn scored 92 against Alabama but still fell short in a golden Quad 1, home rivalry game opportunity.

Heading into this season, Auburn had not lost a single game in which it scored at least 88 points in regulation since a 94-90 loss to Alabama on January 9, 2021 — during the COVID season in 2021. Before that, it hadn’t happened since a 114-95 home loss to Florida on February 14, 2017 — the year before the Tigers’ breakthrough SEC title.

Now that type of loss has happened three times in a little over a month, including twice to your biggest rivals. That’s something that wears on Auburn’s first-year head coach, who was the coordinator for three elite defenses over the last four seasons.

“For them to score 59 (second-half) points is unacceptable for our defense, and that's on me as their coach,” Pearl said. “I've got to do a better job.”

What’s even more frustrating for Auburn is that, for the first 18 minutes of the game Saturday, it held an elite Alabama offense in check.

When Auburn held a 10-point lead with a little more than two minutes left in the first half, Alabama had gone 11-25 (44%) from the field and just 2-8 (25%) from 3-point range with nine turnovers. The Tide had just 26 points in 18 minutes.

The rest of the way? Alabama shot 21-34 (61.8%) from the field and 10-15 (66.7%) from 3-point range with only five turnovers. The Tide scored 70 points in 22 minutes.

“The offense has nothing to do with it,” Pearl said. “Like, we scored 92 points. That should be enough to win any game in our league.”

Seeing that 92 on the scoreboard will only make this loss more maddening for Auburn.

Tahaad Pettiford had a long-awaited turnaround offensive performance, scoring 25 points with seven assists. Kevin Overton had 17 points and shot 4-7 from 3. Keyshawn Hall wasn’t efficient with his shot (8-22 and 1-6 from 3) but still had 24. And KeShawn Murphy had 13 points and 12 rebounds, half of which came on offense.

Was it a perfect game of offense? Of course not. Crunch time will stick out in the minds of many. Down by 1 late, Pettiford had a risky pass stolen away. Hall also was unable to finish a couple of shots close to the rim down the stretch.

Still, according to KenPom, Auburn had an offensive efficiency of 123.2. That’s the highest in an SEC loss for the Tigers since February 4, 2012 — when a Tony Barbee team lost at Mississippi State.

“Four of our best offensive players had pretty good nights,” Pearl said. “Had nothing to do with our offense, has everything to do with our defense. If we want to win games, we'll sit down and guard like we did when he had that four-game stretch a couple weeks ago.

“If we want to continue to have tough results and continue to talk about the things we've got to do better, we'll do what we did tonight.”

Here are four Observations from Auburn’s 96-92 home loss to Alabama, including the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and Quote of the Night.

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

The final two minutes of the first half changed everything