Auburn basketball's Bruce Pearl, players explain second-half collapse in March Madness

BIRMINGHAM — Auburn basketball was rolling through the first 20 minutes of its matchup with No. 1-seeded Houston in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday.

The Tigers shot 55.2% and hit five of the 11 3-pointers they attempted in the first half. They even took a 21-19 rebounding advantage into the break and led by 10 points.

But then disaster struck. Auburn only made four shots in the second half and posted a putrid 16.7% mark from the field, which led to the Tigers being outscored 50-23 in the final frame. To add insult to injury, Houston made all 18 of its free throws in the second half. Auburn only hit 52.8% of its attempts from the foul line over the course of the entire game.

WHAT'S NEXT:Auburn basketball's season ended with March Madness loss, but it's time for the 'next play'

HOUSTON:Auburn basketball falls flat, blows lead in loss to 1-seed Houston in NCAA Tournament

"I wish it was a 20-minute game instead of a 40-minute game," Pearl said. "You know, we were ready to play. The kids were ready to play. Steven Pearl had the game plan, did a great job with our defensive game plan. And we got great looks in the first half. Ran whatever we wanted. And played great basketball.

"In the second half, I don't think our guys were, we were, as prepared for how aggressive they would be. I'm sure that Kelvin (Sampson) jumped all over them at halftime and just lit them up. And they came out and they guarded us much harder, much better. And then we didn't respond to it."

The Cougars outrebounded Auburn 26-13 in the second half and shot 50%.

"When it was so easy in the first half, I think there was a chance we thought that's how it was going to be for the rest of the game, because we were dominated in the second half on both ends of the floor."

The 52.8% mark from the foul line is Auburn's second-worst rate of the season. The only worse performance from the charity stripe was against Vanderbilt on Feb. 18, when the Tigers went 5-for-10.

"Free throws are just concentration," Jaylin Williams said. "You could be tired or whatever, but like, you have ten seconds to shoot a free throw. That's on all of us. I missed one, a few guys missed a few. We make our free throws, we're battling to win the game."

The Tigers notched eight assists and two turnovers in the opening 20 minutes. In the second half, though, they dished out three assists and gave the ball away six times. Auburn scored just four points in the initial 7:28 after coming out of halftime.

"I think we got some pretty good looks (in the second half)," Pearl said. "There wasn't a ton of panic. Maybe a few possessions in the last five or six minutes when we didn't run. Panic meaning we didn't run anything, over dribbled.

"In the second half we drove it downhill and sometimes we got fouled and sometimes they blocked our shot. And in the first half we had much more purpose driving it, passing it. We didn't share the ball in the second half."

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on Twitter @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn basketball's Bruce Pearl talks NCAA Tournament loss to Houston