Observations: Auburn 74, Saint Louis 70

The Tigers were getting beaten up down low and were headed for a painful loss. Then they went on a closing run to remember in STL.

Auburn didn’t have a true road test in its first 10 games of the season. The USF game wasn’t in the Bulls’ home arena, and the crowd in Tampa on that Friday night was close to a 50-50 split.

But Game No. 11 was a real road matchup — a trip to a tough Saint Louis team that had the vast majority of the 8,012 in attendance behind it.

And it showed.

With 9:13 left, star point guard Yuri Collins drilled a 3-pointer to put the Billikens up 60-47. To that point, Saint Louis had outscored Auburn 33-12 in the second half and was straight-up bullying the Tigers down low.

An Auburn team that had won six straight and hadn’t been in a situation like this in almost a month was on the ropes. Still, they knew they weren’t done.

“We found out we didn't panic,” Bruce Pearl said.

Auburn chipped away. A couple of split free throw trips led to a corner 3-pointer from Jabari Smith that made it a single-digit game again. Then Auburn scored eight quick points via three Walker Kessler dunks and a Wendell Green Jr…