Takeaways: No. 8 Auburn Basketball Falls 79-75 At Alabama
The Auburn Tigers lost a close one on the road tonight.
The Tigers (16-3, 5-1 SEC) fell 79-75 at the hands of the Alabama Crimson Tide (13-6, 5-1 SEC). A hard fought second half still leaves Auburn coming up empty, but Bruce Pearl & Co. still hold a share of first place in the SEC standings and will look to build positively on their performance.
Here are takeaways from the game.
Tigers' defense gave up too much early
Auburn struggled to slow down Alabama's offense early, giving up eight three-pointers in the first half. Part of it was Alabama heating up from beyond the arc like they normally do, part of it was lackluster defense.
Getting down 44-30 after 20 minutes of play was just simply too much.
Excellent second-half defense wasn't enough
Despite the shooting disadvantage in the first period the Tigers clamped down in the second. Bama shot 29% from the floor and 23% from deep in the second half, allowing Auburn to climb back into the game.
Unfortunately, the whistles tightened up, and Bama executed on the foul line when they could. Forward Grant Nelson finished the game 8-of-9 from the charity stripe, all of which came in the second half.
Auburn has not shot well on the road
The Tigers finished 5-of-25 from deep. 20% doesn't cut it in most games, and it certainly won't get it done on the road in an environment like Alabama's.
In their three true road games this season, Auburn is shooting 18-of-70 from deep, a cold 25.7%.
It's to be expected that Auburn's numbers dip a bit when they travel away from home, but not being able to upgrade from shooting terribly to sub-average will make road trips more difficult.
Broome gave it everything he had
Johni Broome lead the game in scoring, dropping 25 points on 11-of-17 shooting to go along with 14 rebounds. Broome couldn't stay on the floor for more than 25 minutes due to foul trouble.
Not being able to get Jaylin Williams or Dylan Cardwell going in the frontcourt hurt, but Broome helped carry the way.
Too many second-chance points
Alabama scored 21 second chance points compared to Auburn's 12.
Can't allow 16 offensive rebounds on the road. Simple as that.
