Halftime takeaways: Auburn basketball in close fight with Ole Miss

The Auburn Tigers are in a rock fight with Ole Miss on the road at the half.

Ole Miss leads No. 21 Auburn 35-34 at the half.

It's another dog fight on the road for Bruce Pearl's Tigers.

Despite another cold shooting performance, things have stayed close - Kermit Davis has given Pearl problems for quite some time, and this game is no exception.

Here are three halftime takeaways.

Johni Broome, Tigers looking inside often

Eric Starling/Auburn Daily

Broome leads the Tigers with 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting. Auburn has worked the ball inside a lot thus far (only seven attempts from three), and has found success - they're currently shooting 50% from inside the arc at the break.

The outside shot hasn't fallen at a high clip for the Tigers this season, so working inside with Broom seems like a good idea.

Ole Miss has controlled the transition game

The Rebels are currently outscoring Auburn nine points to two in transition. Finding a way to create separation from Ole Miss will likely include the Tigers creating some offense on the break in the second half.

A tough contest isn't a surprise for a couple of reasons

First, Ole Miss has been a problem team for the Tigers over the past decade. They've split the last eight games 4-4 and had the longest losing streak in the series right before that from 2012-17.

Not only is this normally a tough matchup for Pearl's squad, its also another road game in the SEC. Difficult games are to be expected away from Neville Arena.

Series History

Auburn leads the all-time series over Ole Miss 78-62, having evenly split the series 4-4 over the last eight contests.

Fun Fact

Despite holding a lead in the all-time series, the Tigers took a significant hit in their record following a series high 10-game losing streak from 2012-2017.

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