In a second half where both teams exchanged stop after stop, ironically, it was Missouri getting the final stop at the wrong time.
Auburn (19-1) took down Missouri (8-11), 55-54, in what was a defensive slugfest from the jump. In the game’s final seconds, Auburn took possession up by a point and took the entire shot clock down, ending in a K.D. Johnson missed layup, followed by some deflections from Walker Kessler and the clock fell to triple zeros without a Missouri foul taken.
“There was a little over five seconds on the clock, get the rebound and push the ball,” Missouri head coach Cuonzo Martin said on the decision not to foul. “We weren’t worried [about] them getting an offensive rebound.”
Johnson led Auburn in scoring with 17 points on 6-for-13 shooting. He made two critical baskets, including an and-one layup to put Auburn in front for good with under two minutes remaining. Just before Auburn’s final possession, Javon Pickett drained a critical three pointer to keep Missouri’s hopes alive, as the deficit was cut back down to one. That shot was also Missouri’s lone three point make of the second half. Auburn’s four-point lead before Pickett’s three pointer was their largest lead of the evening.
Auburn shot a season low 30 percent from the field and only hit six three pointers on 28 attempts. Missouri shot 38 percent and only connected five times from beyond the arc. A key to Auburn’s victory were their 25 rebounds on the offensive glass, combined with out-rebounding Missouri in total by 10.
Missouri got off to a hot start, outscoring Auburn 12-2 in the game’s first six minutes, including five of those points from Javon Pickett, who had nine points in the opening half. Missouri’s 10-point lead at the 14:12 mark in the first half was their largest lead of the night. Missouri dominantly led throughout the night, having the advantage for 26:37 of game time.
Auburn took their first lead of the opening half, 28-27, after an 11-1 run sparked by a pair of three pointers from Johnson and Jabari Smith. Missouri held Smith, one of the top players in the SEC, to just three points on 1-for-4 shooting in the first half, and he finished the game with just five points on 2-for-15 shooting.
At one point in the second half, both teams went on active scoring droughts that combined over eight minutes. After shooting a solid 44.8 percent in the first half, the Tigers regressed down to 30.4 percent in the second, a major difference in what turned out to be a one-point finish.
Kobe Brown finished with just eight points and 11 rebounds. DaJuan Gordon was held to just three points on 1-for-5 shooting. Amari Davis, who scored 23 points off the bench last week, scored all eight of his points in the first half, and also missed a critical jump shot with 1:44 remaining that could have put Missouri up by three, prior to Johnson’s and-one. For Auburn, Kessler had a double-double with 13 points and 12 rebounds. Wendell Green Jr. added six more off the bench for Auburn.
Missouri retakes the court on Saturday afternoon, as they travel to Ames, Iowa to face off against 23rd-ranked Iowa State as part of the Big 12-SEC Challenge, while Auburn hosts Oklahoma, the team Missouri fell to in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament last March.
“You learn from what you need to learn on,” Martin said. “Keep staying focused, and you’ll get better.