No. 2 Auburn is fighting for the final shot after a narrow loss at Cameron Indoor

No. 2 Auburn struggled to make crucial shots from the field in the second half in its first loss of the season, 84-78 to No. 9 Duke at rocky Cameron Indoor Stadium.

“We are of course disappointed. We played well. But to play Duke here, you have to play great. Give them all the credit,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said after the loss.

The Blue Devils led 16-11 with as many as 12 minutes left in the second half, but the Tigers, despite extending Duke’s lead three times within a single possession and the home team never leading by more than seven since the 13:51 mark had, never led again.

“We couldn’t break it, but it was definitely something good, you know, we knew we had a chance to come back and take the lead, but we just didn’t fight hard enough for ourselves,” Auburn point guard Tahaad said Pettiford said the Tigers were unable to take back the lead.

After a 6-0 Auburn run that cut Duke’s lead to two points with 7:04 remaining in the top-10 showdown, the Tigers hit just one shot from the field until the 42-second mark , a Pettiford jump.

Although the Tigers made just four of their final 16 field shots against the Blue Devils, Duke was only able to increase its lead by five as Auburn shot 4-for-5 from the charity stripe during the stretch.

“They knew they were playing against an older team, a team that could play physical. And I thought in a lot of ways they played more physical than we did,” Pearl said.

Two Tigers scored double figures in the second half alone; Johni Broome, with 15 points, shot 6-for-9 and Pettiford, with 14 points, shot 6-for-10 with two shots from deep, but the rest of the team saw no single player take more than one shot from the field.

Aside from Broome and Pettiford in the second half, the rest of the Tigers shot 4 of 14 for a total of 13 points.

“But our defense let us down,” Pearl said. “If you come in here, score 78 points against Duke and only turn them over eight times here, you should come out with a win. But Duke was brilliant offensively and performed really well.”

For the Blue Devils, each half had its own star; First up was Isaiah Evans with 18 points, shooting 6 of 8 from distance, followed by true freshman star Cooper Flagg with 16 points in the second half, shooting 5 of 10 from the field and 6 of 9 from beyond the arc.

“Obviously Cooper Flag, I think it was one of his better games tonight. Didn’t have a turnover, so we didn’t bother him enough and he went to the foul line. He gets a great whistle. He’s a great player,” Pearl said.

The No. 2 Tigers have a chance to bounce back from their first loss of the season when they return home to take on the Richmond Spiders on Sunday, December 8th. Tip-off is scheduled for 11 a.m. CST.

“Everyone expects Duke to be a lot better because they’re so young, and I think that will be the case, but no one expects our team to be better because we’re older, but I have a lot of older guys that “Play a lot of new roles,” Pearl said.

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Patrick Bingham | Sports editor

Patrick is a junior from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He began The Plainsman in fall 2022.

You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @patrickabingham