No. 16 Auburn, No. 22 Mississippi State battle for SEC position

Auburn and Mississippi State are seeing how going through the SEC schedule can affect a team's national ranking.

Earlier this month, the Tigers were ranked No. 11 and the Bulldogs were ranked No. 14. Then SEC play began.

Both teams are 2-3 in league play and trying to get back on a winning track as No. 16 Auburn visits No. 22 State on Saturday night.

"That's just the SEC," Tigers coach Bruce Pearl said. "This is the league we're in. This is the grind that we have. We have four out of our first six on the road, and one of our homes games is against (No. 8) Kentucky.

"That's a pretty tough way to start the league. So it's going to be a grind."

Auburn (13-5) has lost its last two games, falling at home to Kentucky 82-80 last Saturday before losing at South Carolina 80-77 on Tuesday. The Tigers fought back from a double-digit deficit in both games to take a second-half lead before falling short in the end.

"We showed a lot of character, a lot of heart," Pearl said. "We had a lot of fight to be able to fight back from a couple double-digit deficits."

Auburn trailed South Carolina by 10 points with about six minutes remaining, then went on a 12-0 run to take the lead with four minutes left, but the Tigers didn't make any field goals after that.

South Carolina took the lead for good on Felipe Haase's 3-pointer with 30.3 seconds left.

Auburn trailed by one in final seconds when Chuma Okeke missed a potential game-winning 3-pointer and Danjel Purifoy missed a put-back.

"We had our chances," Pearl said. "Right now, we're giving away a lot of size and it's affecting us."

Starting center Austin Wiley is sidelined by a lower-leg injury that is expected to keep him out for at least another week. Gamecocks big man Chris Silva had a career-high 32 points, 14 rebounds and four blocked shots.

Mississippi State (14-4), which is 9-1 at home, is coming off perhaps its worst offensive performance of the season in a 76-55 loss at Kentucky on Tuesday.

The Bulldogs had season-lows of 19 field goals made and a 31.1 shooting percentage. They made just 3-of-20 3-pointers.

"We really struggled offensively and give them credit with their defense," State coach Ben Howland said. "I thought they really pressured us, and we didn't handle that pressure very well.

"They really caused us a lot of problems. I thought they had us playing fast and had us playing to where we were in a hurry rather than being in control offensively in the first half."

Kentucky took control with an early 18-2 run and finished the game on a 27-12 run.

The 21-point margin of defeat was the largest of the season for the Bulldogs, whose previous three losses had come by a combined 14 points. Freshman Robert Woodard II had 13 rebounds, the most by a Bulldog this season.

"We don't really have much time to think about this loss," Bulldogs guard Tyson Carter said.

"We just have to get back to practice and work harder because we've got games, another tough opponent Saturday. We don't have time to lick our wounds. We've got to keep it moving and think about the next game."

--Field Level Media