Takeaways from Auburn basketball's 74-72 win over the Georgia Bulldogs

A narrow win for the Auburn Tigers gives them their 19th straight victory.

© Joshua L. Jones / USA TODAY NETWORK

Theft in Athens, Georgia.

The Auburn Tigers (22-1, 10-0 SEC) slightly edged Georgia (6-17, 1-9 SEC) by a final score of 74-72. Auburn guard Wendell Green Jr. found the bottom of the basket on a last-second layup to give the Tigers their 19th straight win. It was an incredibly ugly second half that featured turnovers, bad shots, missed assignments on defense, and overall sloppy play. However, Auburn managed to stick it out and find a way to win against a pitiful Bulldogs team. 

This is the second time in league play that Bruce Pearl & Co. have stolen one away from home. The remaining road schedule may not be as kind as Ole Miss, Missouri, and Georgia was (Arkansas, Florida, Tennessee, and Mississippi State make up Auburn's last four road trips).

Here are five takeaways from Auburn's stress-filled win over Georgia.

Timeouts are important.

Early in the second half Georgia went on an 11-0 run over the span of two and a half minutes to trim Auburn's lead to one point. There were a lot of fans on social media disgruntled over Coach Pearl not calling a timeout to kill the Bulldogs' momentum. Pearl even said in the postgame interview that it could have been costly.

"I should have called timeout sooner with a short bench," Bruce Pearl said. "I could've cost us the game by not calling that timeout. Typically, we get a foul or a bucket or TV timeout was coming... I didn't do a good job of using my timeouts being a man down."

There is something to be said for letting the kids play through tough stretches, expecting that the offense will find its rhythm and that the defense will get back in transition and get stops. There is also something to be said for calling timeouts during massive runs to regroup mentally in order to prevent further damage. Coach Pearl expected his team to regroup on their own, and it very nearly cost Auburn the game.

Georgia eliminated Auburn's pick-and-roll.

Alabama showed glimpses of how to stop the Tigers' powerful pick-and-roll action last Tuesday, clogging the lane with a lengthy guard and limiting Wendell Green's vision on lobs and underneath passes.

Georgia did an excellent job playing physical on Auburn's action towards the basket, man-handling the Tigers at times to prevent Walker Kessler from receiving entry passes. While Kessler did finish with a few dunks, his 10 points were the fewest he had scored since January 11th when he was in foul trouble against Alabama (2 points, 2 rebounds).

Zep Jasper is way more valuable than his surface-level numbers indicate.

Jasper doesn't have gaudy numbers. He only averages 5 points, 2.5 assists, and 1.3 rebounds per game while shooting 34.6% from the floor. What Jasper does have is two things: experience, and defense.

Zep usually has one of the best plus/minuses every game because of his outstanding perimeter defense. Bruce Pearl talked about how important his absence was to the team after the game.

"We missed Zep Jasper, our best perimeter defender, in a big way. It didn't show as much until the second half," Coach Pearl said. "We missed the best defensive guard in the league, period.

He also noted that while Zep is a solid perimeter defender, his presence was also missed guarding drives to the paint from Georgia players attacking the rim. "(I need) Zep Jasper back so I have a better defensive guard stay in front of somebody."

Auburn can't afford to have another Jabari Smith letdown game.

Smith finished with 7 points on 2-of-7 shooting, only the fourth time this season that he has failed to score at least ten points. It's interesting to note that two of those games came at the very beginning of the season (8 points in the first game of the year vs Morehead State, 9 points in the third game vs South Florida) and two of those games have been very recent (5 points in a close game at Missouri on January 25th, and 7 points vs Georgia on Saturday).

It's clear that when Auburn fails to get Jabari Smith the ball, or he simply fails to convert his shot attempts, the offense will more than likely take a step back. The Tigers really can't afford to have him shut down moving forward.

Great teams win these types of games.

On the same day that 6-17 Georgia almost defeated Auburn, No. 3 UCLA lost 87-84 in triple-overtime to Arizona State, who is currently 7-13.

While Auburn definitely struggled in the second half and did almost everything they could to blow the game, they found a way to win in the end. Great teams that are built for tournament play make themselves known in the clutch moments, regardless of how good or bad their opponent may seem.