TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – Kevin Overton scored 22 of his game-high 24 points in the second half, but Auburn started slowly and trailed throughout its regular season finale, falling to No. 16 Alabama 96-84 Saturday at Coleman Coliseum.
“Alabama played well. They beat us at our own game. We got pushed around,” Auburn coach Steven Pearl said. “We had a bunch of really bad turnovers which got us into a hole, and we weren’t able to dig out of it.”
Tahaad Pettiford scored 19 points and led Auburn with four assists. Keyshawn Hall contributed 13 points and six rebounds, and Elyjah Freeman added 11 points.
Auburn held the nation’s top 3-point shooting team to 7-of-27 (25.9 percent) from long range, six made 3s below its average, but Alabama found points closer to the basket.
Alabama outrebounded Auburn 42-28, converted 19 offensive boards into 24 second-chance points, and outscored the Tigers 58-32 in the paint.
“It’s a great offensive team,” Pearl said. “They’re going to make shots and they’re going to make tough plays, but you’ve got to do everything you can to limit their second-chance opportunities. Credit to them, they did a really good job in that part of the game.”
Labaron Philon and Aden Holloway each scored 21 points for Alabama.
Turnovers led to an early Auburn deficit, helping Alabama score the game’s first eight points. The Tigers committed 13 turnovers, leading to 17 points for the home team.
“Too casual with the ball,” Pearl said. “All of the things we did a good job of fixing in the LSU game, we reverted back to in this game. It ultimately led us to have a really slow start.”
Alabama made its first six shots, taking a 10-point lead on Philon’s 3-pointer.
A 12-0 run put the home team ahead by 20 before Filip Jovic ended the drought with a layup.
After Alabama went ahead by 22, Auburn scored eight straight points down the stretch on Pettiford’s layup and dunks from KeShawn Murphy and Freeman, who added a pair of free throws to pull the Tigers within 14 points with 1:04 remaining in the half.
Alabama (23-8, 13-5) capitalized on its 10th offensive rebound, leading to a pair of free throws before Philon ended a 16-point half with his second 3-pointer to give the home team a 50-31 lead at intermission.
Any hopes of an Auburn comeback faded when Alabama made five consecutive shots and used a 6-0 run to push its lead to 25 points at the first media timeout of the second half, eventually leading by 28.
The Tigers fashioned another 8-0 run to pull within 16 points on Freeman’s fastbreak layup midway through the second half, but freshman Amari Allen answered with eight consecutive points to put his team ahead by 23.
Auburn outscored Alabama 53-46 over the final 20 minutes to reduce the final margin to 12 points.
Auburn (16-15, 7-11) heads to Nashville, Tennessee, for next week’s SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena. The No. 12 seeded Tigers will play No. 13 seed Mississippi State in the second game of Wednesday’s afternoon session scheduled for 2 p.m. CT on SEC Network and the Auburn Sports Network.
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer