Bruce Pearl has no injured update on Lior Berman: 'I'm a little down about that'

Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl definitely wasn’t as happy postgame despite a win due to Lior Berman.

Berman suffered an injury in the second half of the Tigers’ 78-63 win over Mississippi State Saturday. He finished with just five points in 10 minutes.

But the injury came at a bad time for Berman, who Pearl was pretty high on coming into the contest.

“He’s been playing so well…I’m a little down about that,” Pearl said postgame.

Members of the Tigers training staff rushed to check up on Berman as he grabbed his knee and continued to wince in pain. Berman eventually was helped off the court to a standing ovation as he favored his right knee.

Berman walked on to Auburn’s roster in the 2019-20 season and slowly worked his way to a larger role over the past four seasons. Pearl rewarded him by placing him on full scholarship ahead of this season, Berman’s fifth with the team.

The 6-foot-4 guard hasn’t played a ton of minutes this season, averaging just 6.3 per game. However, the 27 games he has appeared in are more than any other season of his career. He’s managed 1.6 points and 1.2 rebounds per game as well.

Lior Berman injured in Auburn win over Mississippi State

If the injury is as serious as it looked, it would be a heartbreaking end to Berman’s college career. He’s given Auburn everything he can over the past five years and to think he might not be able to play in the SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament doesn’t seem fair.

Official word is still yet to come until Berman undergoes further examination.

Auburn went on to a 78-63 win against the Bulldogs as it was in control for most of the afternoon. Johni Broome led the Tigers with 17 points and six rebounds as four of Auburn’s five starters reached double figures in scoring.

Denver Jones chipped in 15 points while Jaylin Williams had 10 points and two blocks in his second game back from injury. Auburn jumped out to a 39-22 advantage by halftime and never trailed the entire game.

With the win, the Tigers improved to 22-7 (11-5 SEC) and rank fourth in the conference standings. They now have two regular season games remaining, beginning with a matchup against Missouri at 8 p.m. CT on Tuesday.

Chandler Vessels contributed to this report