Observations: Auburn 78, Mississippi State 63

The Tigers started well with a new starting lineup and never looked back, going wire-to-wire in a balanced win over a tough MSU team.

SG Denver Jones (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

Two weeks ago, Auburn shot a surprisingly low 39.4% from 2 and an even worst 18.2% from 3 in a rare home loss to Kentucky. It was the Tigers’ worst shooting performance inside Neville Arena since the early days of the Bruce Pearl rebuild.

A week later, Auburn had one of the program’s most efficient nights of offense in the last 25 years at Georgia, when it shot 68.8% from 2 and 53.8% from 3. The Tigers followed that up by scoring 84 points and hitting 40.9% of their triples in a shootout loss at Tennessee.

Pearl’s message to his team during the home stretch of the regular season has been simple: Being an elite defensive team is great. But the teams that win in the postseason are the ones that, quite simply, can put the ball in the basket.

“It’s March,” Pearl said. “It’s time to make shots, not take shots.”

Then, on Saturday, Auburn got a rematch against Mississippi State — the team that held the Tigers to a dreadful shooting performance (40.6% from 2 and 25% from 3) in their lowest-scoring loss of the season.

Mississippi State presented a two-fold problem: It had a highly ranked defense that already made life miserable on Auburn, and it had caught fire with its own offense in recent weeks. On top of that, the Tigers had to rebound quickly from a hard-fought loss that all but ended their chances at winning an SEC regular-season title.

No one would have been all that surprised with a letdown, at least at the beginning of the game. Auburn might start out slowly, especially with a lighter-than-usual student crowd because of Spring Break.

With a brand-new starting lineup, the Tigers erased those fears quickly with a 6-0 run to open the game. They would hit eight of their first 13 shots and 10 of their first 18.

Meanwhile, Mississippi State would start out 2-7 from the field, then miss 12 straight shots. The Bulldogs didn’t hit any consecutive field goals until the final three minutes of the first half, when Auburn was already up by nearly 20 points.

“We played well early, shot it well early, and the fact that we were able to turn them over 10 times got them to run their offense way out away from where their comfort zone is,” Pearl said. “Made it harder for them to get the ball into their deep touches.”

Auburn started well and finished well on both ends of the floor in a 78-63 revenge game win.

The Bulldogs finished shooting 39.3% from the floor and only got inside double-digits very briefly in the second half. The Tigers hit 50% of their shots and knocked down nearly half of their 17 attempts from 3-point range.

Heading into the final week of the regular season, Auburn looks like it might be starting to play its best basketball at just the right time.

“Coach has been saying recently, this is the time to get hot,” said center Johni Broome, who led the team with 17 points. “It’s time to make a run. We don’t plan on losing no more. We got two more games, then the SEC Tournament, then March Madness. … It’s time to get hot, so let’s get hot.” 

Here are four Observations from Auburn’s 15-point home win over Mississippi State, along with a bonus fifth one to go with the Rotation Charts. And, as always, we’ll finish with Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Night.

PF Chaney Johnson (Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

[NBA Jam voice] “They’re heating up…”

After going 9-19 (47.4%) from 3-point range Saturday night against Mississippi State — a team that holds opponents to less than 30% on triples this season — Auburn has now hit 40% or more from downtown in three straight games.

That hasn’t happened since November 2017. Auburn’s three opponents were Hofstra, Winthrop and Dayton. Yes, not even the Final Four squad had a streak of 3-point shooting quite like this.

“I think about our conversations about this team this summer, on the heels of last year's team that didn't shoot it very well,” Pearl said. “We all thought this was a good shooting team. We all did.”

Auburn is now shooting 34.7% from 3-point range this season, which is climbing closer to the top-100 nationally. It’s also on pace to be the best mark for the Tigers since that Final Four run in 2019. In SEC play, the Tigers are at 35.8% from deep, which is good enough for No. 5 in the league.

And the best part for Auburn is that it’s getting improved shooting from pretty much everywhere on the roster.