NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Hoping to win its way off the bubble and into the NCAA Tournament, Auburn gets a chance for revenge in the opening round of the SEC Tournament, looking to avenge a February loss to Mississippi State.
The rematch features two of the SEC’s top five scorers, Auburn’s Keyshawn Hall (20.4 points per game) and State’s Josh Hubbard (22.1).
Hubbard tormented the Tigers three weeks ago in Starkville, scoring a career-high 46 points Feb. 18 in the Bulldogs’ 91-85 win.
After Hubbard hit nine 3-pointers and scored 35 points in the first half, the Bulldogs built an 18-point lead early in the second half before Auburn stormed back.
"Of the nine 3's he made in the first half, I would say five of them were really bad coverage mistakes and four of them were tough, good contested shots," Auburn coach Steven Pearl said Monday after the Tigers practiced at Bridgestone Arena. "We've got to do a better job early in this one of limiting our mistakes and not letting him get anything clean. Everything he makes, he's got to earn."
The Tigers outscored the Bulldogs by 25 points down the stretch, going ahead by seven with four minutes to go before Hubbard’s 10th 3-pointer gave Mississippi State a comeback win.
In Wednesday’s rematch, Auburn will try to recreate the defense it played for the first 18 minutes of the second half, when it held Hubbard without a field goal.
"We've made some adjustments to the gameplan," Pearl said. "We've got to execute them. We've got to try and run him off the 3-point line as best we can and do a better job executiing our coverages.
Hall led Auburn in the first meeting with 29 points and 10 rebounds while Tahaad Pettiford scored 21 points with four assists.
Auburn enters the SEC Tournament as ESPN’s “Last Team In” on its bracket projection.
After Auburn’s regular season finale Saturday at Alabama, Pearl noted the Tigers’ strength of schedule, including going 2-2 against league champions from the SEC, Big East, Big Ten and Big 12, all away from Neville Arena.
"We’ve put ourselves in a position to be considered, and I think our resume stands up against anybody’s,” Pearl said. "We have enough quality wins to be in this tournament. We have five of the best wins in the country, we have the best win in college basketball at Florida."
The No. 12 seed, Auburn (16-15, 7-11) tips off against 13th-seeded Mississippi State (13-18, 5-13) Wednesday at approximately 2 p.m. CT at Bridgestone Arena on SEC Network, following the tournament’s opening game between Kentucky and LSU at 11:30 a.m. CT.
"We're still in position," Pearl said. "We've got to come out here and win a couple games. We've got to control what we can control. We've got to win some games. Our mindset is to try to win five games, but you've got to get the first one in order to do that."
Andy Burcham and Randall Dickey will call the action for listeners on the Auburn Sports Network.
The Auburn-Mississippi State winner will play fifth-seeded Tennessee on Thursday, with the winner of that contest advancing to the quarterfinals to play No. 4 Vanderbilt.
"Our guys understand they have a tremendous opportunity and a tremendous responsibility," Pearl said. "We've got to try and finish the job."
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer