Looking to make a statement with its second straight conference win on the road, Auburn basketball faltered against Missouri on Tuesday night at Mizzou Arena, 84-74.
With the loss, Auburn drops to 10-7 overall and 1-3 in league play. Tuesday night marked Missouri’s first win over Auburn since the 2019-2020 season.
Here are the biggest takeaways from the game:
Auburn’s leading scorers kept at bay
After scoring 64 total points last week with back-to-back 32-point performances, Auburn’s leading scorer, Keyshawn Hall, recorded just 10 points on the night. He recorded six points at the charity stripe and tallied seven in the second half on a 2-of-9 showing from the floor.
In addition, the visiting Tigers’ second-leading scorer, Tahaad Pettiford, shot just 3-of-12 from the field. After recording an SEC career-high with seven assists against Arkansas in Auburn’s last outing, he dished out just two assists on Tuesday and zero in the second half.
As a result, Auburn shot 41% from the field, which was its worst showing since the 28-point loss to Purdue.
Elyjah Freeman and Kevin Overton led Auburn in scoring with 13 points apiece. Sebastian Willams-Adams led the orange and blue Tigers in scoring with 12 before he fouled out with 4:56 remaining.
Missouri starts cold
Auburn shot of the gates with an aggressive display of on-ball defense and got out to an early 12-5 lead behind a 7-0 run.
Missouri, hitting its first attempted shot from the field, then missed 10 consecutive shots and was shooting a putrid 13% from the field at the under-12 timeout. The visiting Tigers saw four scorers within the first seven minutes of the contest and had a chance to blow its lead wide open in the midst of Missouri’s shooting struggles.
Home Tigers find their groove
Soon after, Missouri found its rhythm on the offensive end of the floor and ended the first stanza 12-of-16 from the floor, hitting nine of its last 10 shots to take a 38-34 lead into the break.
Missouri rode that momentum into the second half, where it finished the final 20 minutes shooting 64% from the field. The black and gold Tigers’ leading scorer, Mark Mitchell, woke up and tallied 12 of his 20 total points in the second half. He was one of four double-digit scorers for Missouri, with Jayden Stone leading the way with 22 points – he scored 16 in the second half. Trent Pierce shot 6-of-8 from the field with five of Missouri’s nine triples, recording 18 points on the night.
Missouri, which improved to 11-0 on its home court this season, shot 55% from the field – living up to its usual mark of 51.3%, which was 15th nationally entering this one.
Auburn fought back, but it wasn’t enough
Though Auburn has not had the start it hoped for in conference play, it – in all of its SEC losses – has battled back in the end.
It ended up a 10-point loss for the visiting Tigers, but with just over three minutes remaining in the game, they trailed by 11. Auburn fought back and went on a 7-0 run to cut Missouri’s lead to four with 1:46 left to play.
However, Auburn couldn’t capitalize, offensively, down the stretch and ended the night hitting just one of its last eight shots while Missouri cashed in on its last three and ended on a 7-2 run to pick up its third win in conference play.
Auburn will return to Neville Arena on Saturday against South Carolina. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. on the SEC Network.
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