Alabama Crimson Tide guard LaBaron Pilon Jr. (0) makes a jump shot during the game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Auburn Tigers at Neville Arena in Auburn, Alabama, Saturday, February 7, 2026. Auburn’s NCAA Tournament hopes are dwindling after seven setbacks in the last eight games.
But the Tigers have a real opportunity to pick up a big win and spark a late-season surge when they visit No. 16 Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on Saturday night.
Auburn (16-14, 7-10 Southeastern Conference) will be hoping to kick things off with an 88-74 home win over LSU on Tuesday.
Despite the slew of losses, the Tigers are on the verge of a soft tournament bubble.
“At the end of the day, through all the difficulties and struggles, we’re still in a position to make the tournament, and we’ve got to try to find a way to have that belief,” first-year coach Stephen Pearl said earlier this week.
Star guard Tahad Pettiford scored 27 points against LSU and has averaged 25.5 points over the past two games. He went 10 of 16 from the field in both games.
The outstanding contest followed a 9-point and 4-point outing in which Pettiford combined to make 3 of 18 shots.
The sophomore ranks second on the team in scoring (15.1 points per game) and 3-pointers (56) while averaging a team-high 3.6 assists. He made it clear where his focus was.
“We’re trying to get more wins,” Pettiford said. “Take us to the promised land.”
Keyshawn Hall leads Auburn with an average of 20.6 points and is tied for the team lead in rebounds (6.9) with KeShawn Murphy.
Pettiford had 25 points and seven assists and Hall added 24 points in the Tigers’ 96-92 loss to the visiting Crimson Tide on Feb. 7.
Labaron Philon Jr. had 25 points and six assists as Alabama defeated Auburn for the fifth time in the last seven meetings.
The Crimson Tide (22-8, 12-5) snapped a season-high eight-game winning streak with a 98-88 loss to Georgia on Tuesday.
Alabama hit 16 3-pointers, reaching double figures in that category for the 11th straight game, but was outscored 40-30 and outscored 40-18 in the paint.
“Our rebounding has been killing us lately,” Crimson Tide coach Nate Oats said. “It’s going to be hard to win a game when our leading rebounder is five and then the next two have four.”
Guard Latrell Wrightsell Jr. was the only Alabama player with five. Leading rebounder Amari Allen had just one point in 21 minutes before fouling out, dropping her average to 7.1.
Allen, a freshman, has scored a total of five points on 1-for-7 shooting in each of the last two games. The slump came after he scored 23 points and made a career-high six 3-pointers in a 100-75 home win over Mississippi State on Feb. 25.
“Look, I use this term all the time: If you get stuck, you get stuck,” Oats said of Allen. “And when you’re locked in, you get a rebound, you make a defensive play, you’re attacking the floor on offense, you get to the line, you make a free throw, and he has to get locked in again.”
Pilon has always been locked in for Alabama, scoring 26 points for his 17th 20-point effort last season. He ranked second in the SEC with a 21.5 scoring average.
Wrightsell had 19 points against Georgia and is averaging 19 points over his last four games. Over his last three contests, he is shooting 50 percent (15 of 30) from 3-point range.
–Field level media
