Struggling Auburn, Ole Miss vie to make run down stretch
This season has gone awry for Ole Miss and Auburn with both teams sitting in the bottom half of the Southeastern Conference and, barring a Cinderella-like SEC tournament run, missing out on March Madness.
Both teams will look to get over rough losses and try to gain momentum to end the season when the Tigers host the Rebels on Saturday night.
Auburn (15-13, 6-9 SEC) had an up-and-down start to conference play but looked to be going in the right direction with back-to-back wins over then-No. 16 Florida and Texas at the end of January.
Since then, the Tigers have lost six of seven, and if they don't win out, they will finish with a losing record in conference play for just the second time in the past nine seasons.
The Tigers stumbled in a 91-79 loss at Oklahoma on Tuesday, when they allowed the Sooners to shoot 13 of 19 from 3-point range (68.4%).
"We were entitled tonight," coach Steven Pearl said after the defeat. "We were selfish tonight on the defensive end. ... So I got to change up how I'm coaching these guys. I got to ratchet up my intensity a little bit more, and maybe they'll start to play like I act.
"We can't keep having low basketball IQ mistakes that lead to just wide-open shots."
Keyshawn Hall, who had 26 points against Oklahoma, leads the frontcourt attack for the Tigers with 20.8 points per game while Tahaad Pettiford heads the backcourt with 14.4 points and 3.6 assists per contest.
Ole Miss (11-17, 3-12) sits at the bottom of the SEC and has already lost to Auburn once this season, a 78-66 decision on Jan. 20. That game started the Rebels' current 10-game losing streak, Ole Miss' longest skid since 2002-03.
It was a heartbreaker the last time out for Chris Beard's squad, which lost in double overtime to LSU 106-99 on Wednesday despite Ilias Kamardine and Malik Dia combining for 46 points.
"We had a couple of dumb fouls at the end of the game, and again, we had the ball in our hands with two chances tonight, and we didn't get it done," Beard said.
Beard will need Kamardine (11.3 ppg) and Dia (14.1 ppg and 6.1 rebounds per game) to be on the mark again if Ole Miss hopes to break its 10-game head-to-head losing streak against Auburn. The Rebels last beating the Tigers on Feb. 6, 2021, prevailing 86-84 in overtime.