AUBURN – Senior Auburn point guard DeWayne Reed had suffered through a miserable game. He’d struggled from the field and from the foul line. He’d turned the ball over six times and had just one assist.
But when it came time to make a play with the game on the line, Reed made it.
After making one of two free throws to tie the game at 57 with 12 seconds left, Reed knocked the ball loose from Alabama’s Mikhail Torrance near midcourt and got the ball to Lucas Hargrove under the basket. Hargrove was fouled and made one free throw with 3.1 seconds left to lift Auburn to a 58-57 victory over Alabama before an announced crowd of 10,775.
Alabama’s last hope died when Frankie Sullivan, after a long pass, knocked the ball away from Justin Knox as time ran out. On its last trip to Beard-Eaves Memorial Coliseum, Alabama lost to the Tigers for the sixth time in seven meetings. The Tide has not won here since 2006.
Auburn, reeling from a series of second-half collapses against nationally ranked teams, improved to 11-11 overall and 2-5 in the Southeastern Conference. Alabama fell to 13-8 and 3-4.
Going for steals at midcourt is a no-no for Auburn coach Jeff Lebo. But no one was complaining after Reed made the big play.
“DeWayne made a gutsy move trying to steal the ball at halfcourt,” Sullivan said. “Any other time, Coach would have gone crazy, but we’re glad he did it.”
Hargrove laughed.
“Coach went crazy anyway,” he said.
Lebo said he had no complaints, even though he might not recommend Reed do it again.
“It’s not protocol, but he made a great play on the ball, chased it down, then had the vision to get it to Lucas,” Lebo said. “It was a great play by him. He was frustrated in the first half.”
For Auburn, which gave up double-digit leads to Ole Miss, Vanderbilt and Tennessee, the win was welcome relief.
“We just found a way to gut it out, make some stops, make some big plays and win the game,” Lebo said. “We’ve found ways to lose games in the last five or six minutes. It was nice for the kids to be able to win a game like that.”
The game was a grind from the start. Alabama, which had given up just six 3-pointers in its previous four SEC games, gave up just three to Auburn, all by Tay Waller. The Tide led 27-24 at halftime and went up 40-33 with 13:39 left in the game.
But Auburn went ahead 41-40 and the game was on. Neither team led by more than four points again.
Alabama seemed poised to pull away when Torrance basket made it 47-43 with 2:21 left. But Hargrove went hard to the basket and scored a three-point play to make it 57-56. Torrance missed the front end of a one-and-one with 21.9 seconds left, setting the stage for the frantic finish.
Waller had what Lebo called his best all-around game of the season. He was 8-for-12 from the field and scored 20 points. He had give rebounds and four steals. Hargrove finished with 14 points and Reed with 10, though he was just 2-of-9.
Torrance led Alabama with 13 points, but was 4-of-12.
Auburn hit 12 of 24 from the field in the second half to finish with 42.5 percent on 20-of-47. Alabama hit 11-of-22 in the second half to finish at 41.2 percent on 21-of-51.
Lebo said the win was badly needed for the Tigers, who go to Arkansas on Saturday. They have an open date Wednesday.
“We’ve lost to good teams,” Lebo said. “We’ve played right there with top 20 teams for 35-36 minutes. We just have to be able to, for 40 minutes, be able to make some better decisions, better plays, be a little bit tougher physically and mentally. They did that. It was huge. Not only that, it was the Auburn-Alabama game. That brings a little bit extra to the table.”
