Auburn came up short against Alabama. Here are the biggest takeaways from the game.
The Auburn Tigers had an opportunity to build momentum before a big matchup against Vanderbilt on Tuesday night by handling business against their biggest rival, the Alabama Crimson Tide, in the first edition of the 2026 Iron Bowl of Basketball inside Neville Arena on Saturday night.
The Tigers failed to find a way to get it done, however, and fell to Alabama in front of their home crowd.
After a back-and-forth contest, what are some of the biggest things to take away from Auburn's loss against Alabama?
Auburn took better care of the basketball than Alabama
Despite the way things turned out for the Tigers on the scoreboard, they handled the ball better than the Crimson Tide did.
Auburn turned the ball over five times, leading to six points for Alabama. On the other hand, Alabama committed 14 turnovers, and that resulted in Auburn being able to put 20 points on the board.
More obviously goes into winning a game than coming out ahead in the turnover margin, but Auburn did the best it could to avoid shooting itself by not handling the ball well and gifting points to the Crimson Tide.
Lebaron Philon made the difference
While Alabama has a talented roster, one member of the Crimson Tide had a performance that stood out above the rest.
Philon — who was committed to Auburn once upon a time — had an outstanding day. He co-led all scorers with 25 points, putting him even with Tahaad Pettiford, and also added five rebounds and six assists.
Auburn had answers for a lot of the things the Crimson Tide threw at them, but Philon's performance was enough to put Alabama over the top.
Tigers need momentum
Auburn has no dropped back-to-back games, and it needs a big win to get things going back in the right direction.
It has a chance to get that on Tuesday night when it hosts Vanderbilt.
The Tigers and Commodores go head-to-head on Tuesday, Feb. 10 at 6 p.m. SEC Network will carry the broadcast.