AUBURN, Ala. — The Auburn men’s basketball team built a big lead and held on for dear life — again.
Bryce Brown scored 18 points and Mustapha Heron added 17 to help Auburn hold off a big Mississippi State comeback attempt and win 98-92 Tuesday night.
The Tigers (16-8, 5-6 Southeastern Conference) raced to a 20-point halftime lead behind a barrage of eight 3-pointers, then their outside shots quit falling and the Bulldogs started hitting them.
It was the most points Auburn has scored in a SEC game since a 102-61 victory against Alabama on Feb. 13, 1999.
“I don’t think anybody’s going to confuse Mississippi State or Auburn as two of the better defensive teams in the league but we do have some terrific players on both teams,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “You can see how dangerous a club they are.
“They came back from 19 down against Tennessee. It’s just no fluke. They’ve got so many weapons. Those guards, (Lamar) Peters, (Mario) Kegler, and (Quinndary) Weatherspoon, they’re a handful. Those guys got it going in the second half and there wasn’t anything we could do to stop them.”
Auburn, which has won three of its last four games, had lost most of a 15-point lead before eking out an 82-77 victory against Alabama.
MSU (14-9, 5-6), which rallied from a 19-point deficit to beat Tennessee on Saturday, couldn’t quite stage a repeat performance after trailing 48-28 at halftime. The Bulldogs trimmed a 21-point deficit to 91-86 with 51 seconds left to put a scare into Auburn.
Peters hit 5 of 6 free throws in a 16-second span to keep MSU within range. The Tigers made 8 of 15 3-pointers in the first half and 1 of 7 in the second.
“We take a couple of bad shots and it just snowballs to their transition opportunities,” Mississippi State coach Ben Howland said. “I was really proud of the way we fought to come back, never quit, never gave up, and actually gave ourselves a chance.”
Jared Harper and Heron each made two free throws in the final 30 seconds after Brown missed both attempts following a technical foul against MSU’s Xavian Stapleton.
Austin Wiley had 14 points and T.J. Dunans 11 for the Tigers. Ronnie Johnson had a season-best eight assists and scored six points. Brown made 4 of 5 3-pointers — all in the first half — for the second straight game.
“I felt like they were sagging off (defensively),” Brown said. “I felt like that was a little disrespectful, so we took advantage of it.”
Weatherspoon led the Bulldogs with 25 points and nine rebounds. Peters scored 23 and had added seven assists. He made 10 of 11 free throws. Kegler scored 14 of his 16 points in the second half before fouling out.
MSU shot 18 of 31 (58 percent) and made eight 3-pointers in the second half. Bulldogs hit 27 of 34 from the free-throw line.
The teams combined for 19 fouls and 34 free throws in the final 2 minutes, 25 seconds. It wasn’t just MSU trying to send Auburn to the line and stop the clock, though the Tigers made 10 of 14 foul shots in the final 71 seconds.
Auburn was called for a number of late fouls also.
“I thought that those guys were driving into contact and they were calling it accordingly,” Pearl said. “The problem is, we were in bonus early. We fouled them too much.”
Auburn held a 38-33 rebounding advantage. The Bulldogs had 10 assists and 13 turnovers, while the Tigers had 22 assists and 12 turnovers. The Tigers scored 26 points off turnovers.
“We only had 13 turnovers, but they scored 26 points off them, which means they scored on basically every turnover,” Howland said. “Really pleased with our fight. Our guys have a lot of fight in them. It was a two-possession game there at the end. In the second half, we attacked the rim more and got to the line more.”
MSU will play host to No. 19 South Carolina at 7 p.m. Saturday (ESPN2) at Humphrey Coliseum. Alabama beat South Carolina 90-86 in four overtimes Tuesday night in Columbus, South Carolina.
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