The Auburn Tigers suffered another loss to a top ten team on Saturday by losing 88-60 to No. 6 Purdue at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
That loss now gives the No. 24 Tigers an 8-4 record with one more non-conference game before SEC play begins. Auburn is also 1-4 against Quad 1 teams ahead of the SEC slate. Kevin Overton paced the Tigers in points with 22, and rebounds with five.
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Here are five key statistics that contributed to the loss.
Auburn‘s Top 10 Struggles
With an 8-4 record, all four of the Tigers’ losses have come by the hands of teams in the top ten. The first loss versus Houston was a narrow one-point loss early in the season. The other three have not been close versus Michigan, Arizona, and Purdue. In those games Auburn has lost by a combined 87 points and average point differential is 29. Despite the struggles, head coach Steven Pearl is still optimistic. “I just told the guys I’m encouraged. I know fans may not want to hear that right now, and I don’t really care,” said Pearl. “But I’m encouraged and I’m bought in. Everything that this team is set out to you know is setting out to do is still attainable.”
Hall and Pettiford
For Auburn to pull off the upset over Purdue they were going to need big games from Keyshawn Hall and Tahaad Pettiford. They did not receive that from either of their stars. Hall only scored 14 points on 5 of 11 shooting, and Pettiford was 2 of 7 scoring just five points. While it has been rare to have both players play well in the same game, versus Purdue was the first game where neither player had a great game.
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Paint Scoring
In the two previous games for Auburn against Arizona and Chattanooga the Tigers were outscored 96-54 in the paint. That was the case once again on Saturday with Purdue having the advantage of 40-20. The issues in the paint are more of a defensive issue than an offensive one. This Auburn team is more of a perimeter team with the only true inside scoring threat being Keshawn Murphy. The only other chance for inside scoring for Auburn is from the guards driving into the lane. The frontcourt for Purdue was led by Trey Kaufman-Renn with 18 points.
Points Off Turnovers
The turnover battle was close between Auburn and Purdue. The Boilermakers turned the ball over 11 times to just 10 for Auburn. The part that hurt Auburn was not taking advantage of those mistakes by Purdue. They turned the 10 turnovers by Auburn into 14 points. Auburn was only able to score four points off the 11 turnovers by Purdue. The Boilermakers also had the advantage with fastbreak points 9-3.
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Three-point Shooting
A great neutralizing for any basketball team that enters as an underdog is the three-point line. Unfortunately for Auburn, this was another statistical category they lost to the Boilermakers. Purdue was 12 of 26 with a percentage of 46% versus Auburn’s 28% on 7 of 25 shooting. Plus, the overall shooting percentage of 56% of Purdue and Auburn at 36%. Purdue guard C.J. Cox had his shot going against Auburn connecting on four of seven from three-point range. Cox was second in scoring for Purdue with 14 points.
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This article originally appeared on Auburn Wire: Auburn basketball: Five key stats from Saturday’s loss to Purdue
