The Auburn Tigers held the lead for most of the game but couldn’t hold onto the lead as Ole Miss ultimately landed the 86-84 victory on Devontae Shuler’s game winning shot on Saturday.
Auburn managed to hold the lead for most of the game, including all of the second half until the final minute of regulation. In the last minute, Romello White gave the Rebels/Bears/Sharks the tie.
Ole Miss then got the chance to win the game from Shuler, who missed his jump shot.
The Tigers then got the first score from an Allen Flanigan layup to put them up two in overtime. After that, Ole Miss wouldn’t be passed by again. Sharife Cooper hit a three-point shot to tie the game up with 13 seconds left in overtime, however Auburn could not pull the game out.
Before facing off against Ole Miss, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said, “Shuler and (Jarkel) Joiner are playing really, really well right now. They’ve got a lot of depth too.”
Pearl was correct, as Shuler was ready to go in this game, and the Reb’s depth also showed tonight in a big way against the younger Tigers.
Shuler would get a second chance to win the game, and this time he made it count. Shuler took it upon himself to pull up for a jumper again for the win, and this time he hit it to give Ole Miss the win at the end of overtime.
A fall to 4-7 in conference play was the result of this overtime loss for the Tigers. Auburn also got their overall record evened to 10-10, which isn’t what the Auburn faithful have been used to over the last few years with Pearl leading the program.
With Auburn self-imposing a post-season ban on their team this year, it isn’t the worst time to drop some games. Plus, the Tigers are one of the youngest teams in the nation.
However, with Cooper at point guard the Tigers were supposed to be much more dominant this year. With that, the question has to be asked: how much can Auburn grow this offseason? If the answer is ‘a lot,’ the Tigers will be in good shape.
If the answer is ‘not much,’ Auburn is going to have a long season again next year.
On Saturday, they had three players tied for leading scorer. Flanigan, Jaylin Williams and Devan Cambridge each had 16 points against Ole Miss, but that wasn’t enough to win the game.
White really showed out for Ole Miss with 30 points and 10 rebounds.
Shuler had a 26-point showing facing the Tigers, while adding six rebounds of his own.
Auburn gets the chance Tuesday to either rise above an even record or fall into a losing record on the season when they face off against the Commodores of Vanderbilt. Vandy is at 1-6 in conference play, but they do get Auburn in Nashville.
Hayden Crigler is a contributing college football writer for Yellowhammer News. You can contact him through email: hayden@new-yhn.local or on Twitter: @hayden_crigler.
