Bruce Pearl shares how Auburn improved offense in second half of West Virginia game

Auburn nearly staged a comeback for the ages in the SEC/Big 12 Challenge against West Virginia, but the comeback bid ran out of gas inside the final minute and a last-second heave from Wendell Green Jr. couldn’t find the net to force overtime. Still, Auburn’s improved offense in the second half was noticeable.

It was a tale of two halves for Auburn.

West Virginia raced out to a 45-29 lead at halftime, stumping Auburn’s ball screen offense in the process. The Tigers figured some things out in the second half but it was too little, too late to overcome such a steep deficit.

“Probably did a better job of getting the ball inside,” coach Bruce Pearl said. “Johni (Broome) was in foul trouble in the first half, so we didn’t have him. He didn’t play a lot of minutes. Played almost the entire second half and we were able to get him and Jaylin (Williams) touches on the inside.”

The end result was a much more competitive game. Auburn nearly clawed all the way back, outscoring West Virginia by 13 points after the halftime break.

Broome finished with 15 points and Williams chipped in 18, nearly enough to mount a fantastic comeback. But the final shot went wanting.

Bruce Pearl takes some blame for early offensive woes

Despite the foul trouble for Broome that limited what Auburn wanted to do offensively, the head coach also shouldered some of the blame. Auburn’s improved offense came after some tactical shifts.

Pearl noted that he might have called the wrong offense in certain instances.

“I probably called too many ball screens in the first half, and we did not execute our ball screen offense when they blitzed us,” Pearl said. “We did not do a great job, again, on those short rolls. So we went to our post-up game more in the second half.”

That worked, but it wasn’t quite enough to overturn the 16-point halftime deficit.

Now with back-to-back losses for the first time this season, Auburn will look to regroup before a home date with Georgia. That game will be played at 7 p.m. ET on Wednesday with a broadcast on the SEC Network.