Observations: Alabama 70, Auburn 58

Auburn's defense did enough to win Tuesday night. Unfortunately, a Sharife Cooper-less offense fell way below the standard on the road.

PG/SG Jamal Johnson (Alabama Athletics)

Sharife Cooper “wasn’t close.” But Auburn still was at one point Tuesday night.

Despite turning the ball over more times in the first 12 minutes against Alabama than it did in 40 minutes of a win against Tennessee last Saturday, a Cooper-less Auburn managed to cut what had been a big lead down to five points with 8:05 remaining.

Then Alabama did what is expected of a championship team at home — it hit tough shots, tightened up on an already struggling Auburn offense and pulled away for what would be a 70-58 victory.

“We gave ourselves a chance to win,” Bruce Pearl said. “But offensively, we’ve got some limitations, and we weren’t able to make some shots that we made at home against Tennessee.”

Here are five Observations from Auburn’s penultimate game of the 2020-21 season, along with the Rotation Chart, Nerd Stats and a Quote of the Night.

When a PG-less offense meets an aggressive defense

Cooper, who sprained his ankle nine days ago, dressed out for t…