STARKVILLE, Miss. – The Auburn men’s basketball team erased an 18-point second half deficit, but Mississippi State closed the game on an 18-5 run to hold on for a 91-85 victory on Wednesday night at Humphrey Coliseum.
Trailing by 16 at halftime and by 18 early in the second half, Auburn (14-12, 5-8 SEC) stormed all the way back and took a 7-point lead with under four minutes to go, but the Bulldogs (13-13, 5-8 SEC) closed the game strong by making five of their final six shots and all six of their free throws to secure the victory.
SEC leading scorer Josh Hubbard scored 35 of his 46 points in the first half to help MSU build a 49-33 lead at halftime. The Tigers neutralized Hubbard in the second half, holding him to no field goals in the first 18 minutes of the second half, but his corner three with 0:44 left gave MSU an 85-83 lead, which they would hold onto.
Keyshawn Hall led Auburn with 29 points and 10 rebounds for his seventh double-double of the season, while Tahaad Pettiford logged his fourth straight game scoring 20+ points with 21 and four assists. Overton added 15 points for Auburn’s third player in double figures.
“This was devastating. You can’t let someone score 46 points and expect to win,” head coach Steven Pearl said. “It was a great comeback and we showed a lot of grit, a lot of fight, but we have to do a better job as a staff of being up seven with four minutes left.”
The Bulldogs scored the game’s first 7 points and had an early 7-3 at the first media timeout of the game.
Out of that timeout, Hubbard took over by connecting on three deep triples, two of which were as the shot clock was expiring, which increased the MSU lead to 18-6.
Hall kept the Tigers in the game with 14 early points, and Auburn crept back into the contest with an 8-0 run to get within six (21-15), but Hubbard continued to score and had 21 points at the under eight media timeout to help MSU lead 29-20.
Behind 35 first-half points from Hubbard, Mississippi State led 49-33 at halftime. Hubbard made 13 of his 18 shots, including 9-of-12 from long range, and helped MSU shoot 58 percent in the half. Hall had 16 at the break to lead Auburn, who shot 38 percent in the opening 20 minutes.
Hall and Pettiford each scored 6 points early in the second half to help Auburn cut the 16-point halftime deficit to 11 at the under 16 media timeout (56-45).
The Tigers continued to fight back and a straight-on 3-pointer from Overton cut the lead to 6 (56-50), forcing Mississippi State into a timeout with 14:27 left in the game.
The run continued, which was ultimately a 20-4 Auburn spurt capped by another Overton triple, and the Tigers trailed by just 2 (59-57) at the under 12 media timeout.
Auburn took its first lead of the game on KeShawn Murphy’s putback to give the visitors a 64-63 lead with 8:50 remaining in the contest.
From there, the lead would change hands six times, and Murphy’s free throw at 4:44 gave the Tigers a 74-73 lead. Murphy missed the second free throw and Auburn gathered the offensive rebound and kicked it to Pettiford for three. The Tigers got a defensive stop on the next possession and Overton then drilled fourth triple to force MSU into its final timeout at the 3:54 mark with Auburn taking its largest lead of the game at 80-73.
However, Mississippi State took over down the stretch and erased the 7-point advantage for a wild 6-point victory.
The Tigers return to Neville Arena this Saturday to host Kentucky in its annual AUTLIVE game. Tip is set for 7:30 p.m. on ESPN.