Auburn falls at Mississippi State 79-66 in regular season finale
TJ Lang scored 16 points on 4-of-6 treys, Cinmeon Bowers had his 14th double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds as Auburn fell at Mississippi State 79-66 in the regular season finale for both teams in Humphrey Coliseum on Saturday.
STARKVILLE, Miss. – TJ Lang scored 16 points on 4-of-6 treys, Cinmeon Bowers had his 14th double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds as Auburn fell at Mississippi State 79-66 in the regular season finale for both teams in Humphrey Coliseum on Saturday.
Tyler Harris added 13 points, five rebounds and three assists while Horace Spencer scored a career-high 13 points with five rebounds and three blocks.
No. 13 seed Auburn will play No. 12 seed Tennessee in the SEC Tournament first round on Wednesday at 7 pm CT in Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena. The Tigers won three games in three days in last year’s tournament for the first time in 30 years as the 13th seed.
The Tigers defeated the Vols 83-77 in the SEC opener on Jan. 2 in Auburn and lost to Tennessee 71-45 in Knoxville on Feb. 9.
Auburn scored the first eight points of the game behind back-to-back TJ Lang 3-pointers. Mississippi State used a 14-2 run with four straight 3s to take a 20-13 lead with 6:43 left in the half.
“I really like Mississippi State’s team,” said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. “They are finding a way now to play in their best roles. They are a dangerous team heading into the tournament. In a way, I am kind of rooting for them.
“We were prepared to play, and we got off to a good start. I thought we got disrupted in the first half. Offensively, we got stagnant and weren’t sharing the ball really well. In the second half, I thought we played well. We had a lot of good looks. We played well offensively.”
State used a 10-0 run to go up 32-16 and increased it to as much as 39-20 at the half.
After a State basket to open the second half, Auburn scored eight straight points to cut the lead to 41-28. A Lang 3 and Dunans layup brought the Tigers to within 52-43 with just over 12 minutes to go as Auburn opened the half making 9-of-13 shots.
Auburn fell to 11-19, 5-13 in SEC play while Mississippi State improved to 14-16, 7-11.
Malik Newman led Mississippi State with 17 points while Quinndary Weatherspoon added 16 points and Gavin Ware 10 points and 12 rebounds.
Auburn outscored State 46-40 in the second half behind 56.7 percent shooting from the floor, including 5-of-8 3s. For the game, the Tigers outshot the Bulldogs 42.4 percent to 41.9 percent from the field. State went 11-of-25 (.440) from 3 to Auburn’s 7-of-19 (.368). State went 16-of-23 from the foul line to Auburn’s 9-of-16.
