Observations: Georgia 104, Auburn 100 (OT)
The Tigers pulled off a miracle to force overtime on the road. But familiar defensive issues and missed offensive chances cost them in the end.
ATHENS, Ga. — Two days before Auburn’s SEC opener at Georgia, Steven Pearl said he wanted to see how his team would respond to adversity on the road.
He got his answer. Auburn rallied from being down by nine early in the second half and finally retook the lead after missing a string of potential go-ahead shots earlier.
It also, somehow, managed to send the game into overtime after being down by five with 12 seconds left and down by four with less than five seconds left. When Keyshawn Hall intentionally missed a free throw that Kevin Overton rebounded and turned into a fading buzzer-beater, Auburn had done the unthinkable.
“Man, I think this was the first time that we actually showed ourselves what happens if you just keep playing,” Overton said. “I feel like it's something that I've tried to bring to this school, just letting guys know that if you keep playing, you'll be OK, no matter the score. It shows we have fight. It definitely gives me hope that we have a chance to do something special.
“That was the result. Obviously, it didn't go our way, but it shows fight, for sure.”
Yes, even after taking advantage of a last-second Georgia meltdown, Auburn still came up short away from home — a 104-100 overtime loss to a rival to open SEC play.
Auburn was without leading scorer Tahaad Pettiford for that overtime period, as he had fouled out with 12 seconds left in regulation. Filip Jović, who brought down nine second-half rebounds in his best performance to date at Auburn, then fouled out 14 seconds into overtime.
Georgia hit the big shots and got the late stops that Auburn couldn’t, snatching an important home win that it felt like it had given up in improbable fashion.
“Disappointing result,” Pearl said afterwards. “It's hard to win on the road, but we put ourselves in position in a lot of different ways to come out here and win this game against a ranked opponent. We came up short.”
Auburn came up short on defense first and foremost. Even though Georgia had the nation’s highest-scoring offense and was favored by several possessions, Auburn felt like it could — and had to — do a much better job defending than what it put out Saturday in Stegeman Coliseum.
Georgia’s leading scorer, Jeremiah Wilkinson, had 31 points. Smurf Millender added 24 off the bench, including a 5-7 mark from 3-point range. Two other Bulldogs had 15 points, and one more had 12 before fouling out in the second half.
And that’s something that clearly eats at Pearl, who was Auburn’s defensive coordinator before getting promoted to the head coach job this season.
“I'm always going to figure out what I can do better,” Pearl said. “But my team's got to do a better job of finding out their identity defensively and taking some accountability in their one-on-one defense — because I can't go out there and guard for them.”
This was just one of 18 games for Auburn in what looks like it could be a wide-open SEC. The Tigers, still, have plenty of time to make improvements and continue their push towards making the NCAA Tournament and maybe some noise in the league.
But it goes back to something else Pearl said recently: Auburn just can’t keep getting in these adverse situations, especially the ones it has a tendency to create for itself.
Here are three Observations from Auburn’s overtime loss at Georgia, including the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and a different kind of Quote of the Day.
Auburn’s “terrible” and “horrible” day of 1-on-1 defense
It was no secret heading into this matchup that Auburn was going to have to be better in defending 1-on-1 against Georgia. The Bulldogs build their attack around getting to the basket as quickly as possible, relentlessly getting downhill for their looks.
The message was preached all week in practice: Guard your yard. Don’t need help.
But, for the majority of the game, Auburn didn’t do that. A defense that is now teetering on being outside of the top 100 nationally on KenPom showed a lot of the same struggles it’s had in defending drives to the basket since all the way back in the overtime exhibition loss to Oklahoma State in Birmingham.