Tip-Off Countdown: #66 (22) Auburn 76 Mississippi State 68

Justin Ford-USA TODAY Sports

14 in a row!!!!

January 13, 2018 - Starkville, Mississippi

Coming off a comeback win over Ole Miss, the Tigers hit the road again looking to end another long losing streak. Auburn had lost their previous 6 trips to Starkville and were winless there since February 28, 2009.

Just as they had earlier in the week, Auburn struggled coming out of the gate. After a very brief 4-2 lead, the Tigers would fail to lead the rest of the 1st half. Auburn shot just 27% in the 1st half and only put 24 points up on the board. The Bulldogs led 35-24 at halftime.

Miss State would grow their lead to 13 but Auburn began to chip away. Jared Harper, who was scoreless in the 1st half, hit a 3-pointer to really get Auburn on the right track to cut the deficit to 39-31 3 minutes into the half. A trio of free throws would start an 8-0 run for Auburn, with a basket from Mustapha Heron and Bryce Brown accounting for the other points during the run. Suddenly, Auburn found themselves down just 2 at 41-39 with 14 minutes left.

Bryce would hit 2 more 3s over the next few minutes and Auburn trailed 49-45 at the Under 12 timeout. Auburn would take the lead with exactly 10 minutes left on a pair of free throws from Desean Murray. Those free throws were part of a 10-0 run, which was highlighted by a pair of 3s from Malik Dunbar. The run put Auburn ahead 57-51 with 9 minutes to go.

Auburn would build an 11 point lead, 65-54, with 6 minutes left but the Bulldogs wouldn’t go down easy. They went on an 11-2 run and trailed Auburn 67-65 with 3 minutes to go. Big buckets from Heron and Harper stretched the lead back to 6 and Auburn finished the game by making their free throws.

Bryce Brown was 5-8 from 3 and led the team with 23 points. Mustapha Heron and Desean Murray each had 14 points with Murray also grabbing 9 rebounds. Jared Harper scored all of his 12 points in the 2nd half and Malik Dunbar added 8 points off the bench.

Auburn moved to 16-1 on the season, a 14 game winning streak, and moved into the Top 20 in the polls.

Here are the highlights!

The 14 game winning streak which lasted exactly 2 months would come to an end in the next game at the hands of Alabama but up next, we look back at a game that featured one of the best plays I’ve ever seen at Auburn Arena.

War Eagle!

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