Observations: Auburn 78, Ole Miss 66

Auburn earned another SEC win it needed with plenty of defensive stops and just enough offensive magic. And, this time, it was on the road.

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

OXFORD, Miss. — Sometimes, you have to ignore what the box score is saying.

Sure, you can be frustrated that you and your team have barely hit any jumpers for the second straight game. You can lament your own extended shooting slump, especially if you turned down the NBA Draft and had high expectations for this current season.

You can get irritated that the opposing team’s student section has been chanting at you every single time you touch the ball, going low by referencing a massive and serious off-the-court mistake you made in the offseason.

You can also feel nervous that the other team is hitting the shots you can’t, that it’s cut a 13-point lead down to a single possession, that it’s +24 in points off 3s, that it’s got all the momentum at home in crunch time.

Or you could shut all that out and remind everybody that you’re still Tahaad Pettiford — and that this is still Auburn basketball.

Pettiford did that on the very next possession, driving his man down the right side of the lane before slamming on the brakes, spinning into a turnaround jumper and hitting it through a foul from a second defender. It was almost a perfect remake of the crucial and-one he hit in his takeover of Auburn’s Sweet 16 comeback win over Michigan.

A few possessions later, after Ole Miss could only get back the one free throw Pettiford hit, the sophomore star had the ball in his hands again. Auburn had broken Ole Miss’ press rather easily, and Pettiford’s first thought was to take it easy and work the clock with a 5-point lead.

Then he looked at the Ole Miss basket and smelled blood in the Land Sharks’ water.

“When I got it right before half-court, I was gonna slow it down,” Pettiford said. “I didn't think it was gonna be that open. Just slow it down, take some time off. But once I took that dribble at half-court and saw that gap, it was like, ‘You can't not go for it.’“

The 6-foot-1 Pettiford’s dunk over the 6-foot-8 Corey Chest symbolically ended all hopes of a comeback. Pettiford would hit two free throws on the next trip to go up by seven, and Ole Miss wouldn’t hit another shot — missing seven of its last eight, all told.

As the final buzzer sounded, Pettiford waved goodbye to the Ole Miss student section.

“I mean, it's part of the game,” Pettiford said. “I look forward to every away game, knowing that they're gonna come in here and say whatever they want. I laugh at it. I find it funny. I find it amusing.

“It's better when they're talking and you shut them up.”

It was a fitting ending for a 78-66 win over Ole Miss that Auburn just had to have: Plenty of defensive stops and just enough offensive magic when going to the basket.

“That's an important win,” head coach Steven Pearl said. “Not a lot of teams are gonna come in here and get that win. They had a tremendous crowd tonight. The student section was amped up, and our guys did a good job of responding. They didn't panic when it got down to three. We had some real step-up from a number of guys on the roster.

“Happy for the guys. We needed that one. Felt like the last two were must-wins, and our guys played desperate defensively, and we were able to get the win.”

For the second straight game, Auburn grabbed a victory it was expected to get — but not in a way that many would have expected.