Outmanned Auburn drops 7th straight

AUBURN | An outmanned Auburn was no match for Vanderbilt Saturday.

The Commodores cruised to an 86-57 win at the Auburn Arena as the Tigers dropped their seventh-straight game.

“I told our guys to try not to be discouraged, that there’s a lot of opportunity out there,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “We’ve got a couple of guys that are taking advantage of the opportunity and a couple of guys that haven’t yet.”

Vanderbilt put the game away with three-straight 3-pointers to open the second half and take a 20-point lead. The Commodores led by as many as 39 points late in the game.

Vanderbilt held a 48-37 rebounding edge and outscored Auburn 40-18 in the paint.

Auburn, which is without four potential starters, shot 29.0 percent from the floor and made just 8-of-32 3-pointers.

“I think we’re getting shots we can make, I do, and if we’re going to be competitive and we’re going to win we’ve got to make those shots,” Pearl said.

TJ Lang and Bryce Brown led Auburn with 14 points apiece.

"It's tough as a competitor. Nobody on our team likes losing," Lang said. "It's just something we're going to have to keep learning on and building on. We have enough talent in the locker room to win games, we just have to put it all together.

"One of these games it will all come together. We'll all start making shots. We'll start playing better."

Cinmeon Bowers added 12 points and 15 rebounds, the 24th double-double of his career. He had five assists and six turnovers, starting at point guard for a third-straight game.

“Cim had five baskets. He had five assists,” Pearl said. “We only had eight other baskets he wasn’t involved in either scoring or assisting on so I think in many ways he has really stepped up. Sometimes he goes too fast and probably a couple of his turnovers were unforced but he’s out there battling.

“For him to have 15 rebounds and the closest guy four gives you an indication of the effort and energy that he’s putting forth and his toughness.”

Tyler Harris was held to four points and four rebounds, shooting 1-of-8 from the floor. He's made just 1-of-18 shots in the last two games.

“Tyler is really not 100 percent and he’s not effective out there,” Pearl said. “His back is bad and he’s not able to practice. We need him to be able to play like he’s capable of especially when there’s opportunities on the offensive end.”

Damian Jones led Vanderbilt with 17 points and nine rebounds. Matthew Fisher-Davis added 16 points as the Commodores improved to 15-10 overall and 7-5 in the SEC.

Auburn falls to 9-15 overall and 3-9 in the conference.

Auburn is back in action Wednesday night at Arkansas. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. CT on the SEC Network.