Perimeter blues strike again

AUBURN | TJ Dunans returned Saturday after 15 games out with a knee injury, a wholly positive development for these Auburn Tigers, but nothing good seems to last with this team.

Forward Tyler Harris was knocked out during the second half after receiving a vicious blow to his face while scrambling for a rebound. He didn't return. Harris' absence was an ill-timed malignancy for a team that struggles to score inside and struggles to draw fouls anywhere on the court.

Ole Miss didn't have any corresponding problems.

The Rebels won, 69-59.

"You could make a ton of excuses," coach Bruce Pearl said. "I'm not disappointed in the effort, but I am really disappointed in the execution."

Auburn (10-16, 4-10) tailed by seven points at halftime largely due to its inability to mitigate Ole Miss guard Stefan Moody, who scored 19 points during the first half. The Tigers took a calculated risk to generally avoid double-teaming Moody and, well, the senior made the home team pay for its verve.

Pearl changed his stance during the second half, though, and his team enthusiastically allocated two defenders to Moody when he received the ball. He scored only four points during the second half.

Problem solved? Hardly.

The Rebels have seen this scheme before. They're used to Moody drawing double-team oversight, so identifying advantageous scenarios away from their super scorer is like second nature. Ole Miss wasn't quite as sharp with Moody working mostly as a decoy, but it noneless scored 29 points during the second half.

Auburn's scoring enterprise hit the skids when Harris left the game with 16:36 to go in the game. He led the way with 13 points during the first half, which included a 7-of-10 performance at the line. The rest of the team attempted seven free throws in aggregate.

Harris was a one-man operation.

Once he left the game with a concussion, Auburn no longer had a player capable of attacking the rim. Dunans has those abilities when healthy, but this was his first game back in two months. Despite repeated pleas from the head coach during time outs, guards Bryce Brown and T.J. Lang seemed content to settle for perimeter jump shots.

Bowers, who started at point guard, shifted to forward as the game progressed. Dunans, a shooting guard by trade, became a makeshift point guard.

"T.J.'s best position is off the ball," Pearl said. "There are more minutes for him at the point guard position."

Bowers led the Tigers with eight points during the second half. He went 4-of-5 at the line; no other Auburn player attempted more than two free throws during the second half.

Pearl's team seemed content to keep searching for the perimeter accuracy that fueled their mid-week win at Arkansas. It never materialized.

"I feel like we gave up a little bit with about 10 minutes to go," said Bowers, who finished with 11 points and 18 rebounds. "I don't know why. Maybe it's because we weren't hitting shots? They weren't going in tonight. My shots, too."

Auburn shot 61 percent in the Wednesday win at Arkansas. It shot 33 percent Saturday.

The Tigers resume play Wednesday night at home against the Georgia Bulldogs.