Auburn's head coach weighed in on the teams comeback victory over Texas.
After the Texas Longhorns appeared to be on their way to a win over the Auburn Tigers inside Neville Arena on Wednesday night, the Tigers rallied back and picked up their fourth win in a row.
Head coach Steven Pearl said the quiet part out loud after the game, expressing how Auburn's lackluster play in the first half contributed to the hole it dug for itself.
"Offensively, in the first half, we were really not sloppy, but we didn’t execute well," Pearl said. "Our spacing was really bad, and they did a really good job early of plugging gaps and doing a good job of guarding without fouling at the rim. It led to us taking some really tough contested twos, and we were looking for whistles, instead of just going to score through contact."
Pearl's halftime message to the team was all about finding a way to respond to the hot start Texas had.
"Halftime, we get in there, and I’m like, 'guys we should be down 20 right now based on how we played offensively and how well they played in the first half.' To only be down eight was huge," Pearl said. "It felt a lot like Missouri. They made seven threes in the first half on shots we wanted them to take. We just didn’t respond well at Missouri."
The halftime speeech worked, and the Tigers managed to right the ship in the second half.
"We did a really good job early in the second half," Pearl said. "We cut the lead to three. They then extend it back to eight. We get into a timeout, and we had to figure out if we were going to bend, not break. And our guys hung in there and just kept chipping away. Coach Burgomaster did a great job of just putting us in spaces where we can drive those guys, and they wouldn’t be able to help nearly as much."
Pearl and company return to action on Saturday when they face Tennessee. It will be his first game against his alma mater as a head coach.