This past week, Coach Steven Pearl and the Auburn Men’s Basketball team faced a pivotal week of games on slate. Wednesday’s match was a trip to Starkville to face Coach Chris Jans and the Mississippi State Bulldogs, with the Saturday match being Coach Mark Pope bringing the Kentucky Wildcats down to the plains for the annual AUTLive game for cancer research. Being on the heels of a 3 game losing streak dropping games to Alabama, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas the Tigers needed to desperately get back on track.
Well they did to a degree……
Mississippi State 91, Auburn 85
The first contest of the week for the Auburn proved to be an unexpected challenge. Keyshawn Murphy was making his return trip to Starkville after transferring out via the portal after spending 4 years playing for the Bulldogs. The crowd played a factor into that return for him and then some. After taking the opening tip of the game, it quickly became the Josh Hubbard show, and then some. In the first half alone, the rim seemed to be as wide as a barrel, with Hubbard accounting for 35, yes 35 of the Bulldogs’ 49 first half points, shooting 13-18 from the field, and hitting 9-12 from 3 point range alone. The Tigers could not find a first half answer in any way. Keyshawn Hall led the Tigers in the first half with 16 points on 4-8 from the field, and 4-5 from 3 point range.
Second half action picked up some for Auburn. They kept Hubbard down to a minimum and tightened up defense, but had struggles offensively still. The Tigers clawed back and took a lead, but MSU fought back and claimed the win. Coach Pearl labeled this game as possibly the worst loss in his overall tenure at Auburn. Josh Hubbard finished the game leading State with 46 points, shooting 15-27 from the field and 10-16 from 3 point range. Keyshawn Hall led Auburn with 29 points, and Tahaad Pettiford adding in 21 points. The Tigers were set to go into the weekend match with Kentucky sitting at 14-12 overall, and 5-8 in SEC play.
Auburn 75, Kentucky 74
The annual AUTLive game put on by the Pearl Family Foundation was set this year to be played with the Kentucky Wildcats. Coach Pope brought his Wildcats into Neville Arena on the heels of a 2 game skid. Knowing that Auburn themselves were on a 4 game skid, this game was going to be an old fashioned cat fight. Opening half play went back and forth the whole time on scoring, as well as physicality. Head Referee Courtney Green was in the building, so some extremely questionable calls came. First half scoring played out to be nearly average with Kentucky ending the half in the lead 39-35. Otega Oweh led Kentucky with 12 first half points, while Keyshawn Murphy led the Tigers with just 8 points.
Second half play proved to be the Keyshawn Murphy and Elyjah Freeman show. Those two absolutely took over the game for Auburn on the defensive and offensive ends. Scoring stayed really tight throughout second half for both squads. With less than 20 seconds left, and UK up 74-73, a costly push off foul on Collin Chandler of Kentucky, committed on Kevin Overton, proved to be the ultimate turning point. Overton took the inbounds pass and went for the drive, ultimately missing the first layup. Keyshawn Murphy crashed in and missed the second layup, but the third time proved to be the ultimate charm with Elyjah Freeman leaping up to catch the rebound and get the putback, sending the Tigers up 75-74. The game would end there in thrilling fashion like Neville Arena atmospheres always bring. Keyshawn Murphy led the Tigers in scoring with 25 points, and 10 rebounds. Otega Oweh led Kentucky with 29 points overall. It was only the 5th time in program history that Auburn has defeated Kentucky in consecutive seasons. Coach Pearl was high on his defense in post game, stating that “We were a little more connected… I thought we just did a better job of communicating our switches and our ball-screen coverages and our framing. We didn’t get backdoored as much. And I thought our bigs had great ball pressure on their bigs.”
The Tigers currently sit at 15-12 overall, and 6-8 in SEC Play.
The Week Ahead….
This weeks slate of games bring a Tuesday and Saturday matchup for The Auburn Tigers.
Game 1 of the week brings a trip to the Lloyd Noble Center in Norman, OK for a matchup with Coach Porter Moser and the Oklahoma Sooners. Tipoff is set for 8:00 pm and will be televised on ESPNU. Oklahoma is desperate for another conference win, and will prove to be a big road test.
Saturday is set to bring another night game to Neville, with Coach Chris Beard and the Ole Miss Rebels slated to come into town. Ole Miss , like Oklahoma, is desperate for another key conference win to close their season out on a high note. Tipoff is set for 7:30 pm and is set to be televised on the SEC Network.
War Eagle!
