Nov. 18, 2014
 Cinmeon Bowers had his second double-double for Auburn, but it wasn't enough in Colorado | ||||||||||||||||
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By Charles Goldberg
AuburnTigers.com
Auburn lost Matthew Atewe before the season, Antoine Mason didn't dress because of a bad ankle and Tahj Shamsid-Deen "God bless him for playing with a shoulder that got separated."
Coach Bruce Pearl watched his Tigers play short-handed in a game that started at midnight Monday, Auburn time, and eventually saw them wear down in the wee hours of the morning in losing to Colorado 90-59 in Boulder. Auburn trailed by two points two minutes into the second half, but then went through a stretch where it missed 17 straight shots.
"We had to make shots, and in the second half we were 1-for-15 from 3, and I thought about 13 of them were pretty good looks. We have to make some of those shots," Pearl said in his post-game radio interview.
Auburn fell to 1-1, falling short when the comeback that beat Milwaukee last Friday didn't materialize. Instead, a 24-0 Colorado run pushed the score to 75-48 with 5:27 remaining. Colorado shot a blistering 65 percent in the second half. Auburn shot 18 percent.
KT Harrell led Auburn for the second straight game with 20 points and Cinmeon Bowers had his second straight double-double, this time with 11 points and 13 rebounds. Pearl also said K.C Ross-Miller played well offensively. He scored 11. But the Tigers missed Mason, the nation's leading returning scorer, who scored 19 in his Auburn debut Friday. Shamsid-Deen played after having his shoulder pop out, then pop back in, Pearl said, in the opener.
"We're not very deep, so we're up against it," Pearl said. Auburn isn't very tall, either. Colorado enjoyed a 46-31 rebound advantage.
"These guys," Pearl said of Colorado, "have SEC size. It's a real issue for us."
Xavier Johnson and Josh Scott led Colorado with 17 points each. They were in a happy locker room. In Auburn's locker room, Pearl said he told the team they have to push on.
"I didn't want them right now feeling good. They have to be accountableââ'¬¦ Guys can play better," he said.
"Let's see if we can take it out on the next team. That's my focus."
The Tigers will try that when they play Louisiana-Lafayette at 8 o'clock Friday in Auburn Arena.
"We'll shift gears really quickly," Pearl said.
Auburn then boarded its charter flight back that would take the Tigers back to Alabama, with an expected arrival in Auburn between 6 and 6:30 a.m. Pearl said he expected his players to head to class.
They'd pick up their game later.
Charles Goldberg is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @AUGoldMine