Auburn @ Alabama preview

Last Meeting ( Feb 2, 2019 ) Alabama 63, Auburn 84

Auburn topped Mississippi State on Saturday, providing the Tigers consecutive 20-win seasons for the first time since the 1998-2000 seasons and almost assuredly locking up an NCAA Tournament berth. Auburn seeks a third straight win Tuesday and a season sweep of Alabama when it visits a Crimson Tide team that is fighting for its NCAA Tournament life.

Bryce Brown scored 24 points, Auburn forced 18 turnovers and led by 19 points with just over six minutes left before settling for an 80-75 victory over the Bulldogs. "(20-win seasons) means a lot, knowing where the program has come from," Brown told reporters after the game. "I feel like these last couple years, we've just changed that around. Twenty-win seasons, I want that to be a normal thing for us now." Brown had the hot hand in the first meeting with the Tide, scoring 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting, including 5-of-7 beyond the arc, and Jared Harper added 19 points and five assists in the 84-63 thrashing on Feb. 2. Alabama, which likely needs a few more wins to feel more secure about an NCAA berth, had its grasps on a resume-building win Saturday against LSU, leading the Tigers by two with five minutes left, but they couldn't close out and ended up on the short end of a 74-69 verdict.

TV: 9 p.m. ET, ESPNU

ABOUT AUBURN (20-9, 9-7 SEC): Senior guard Brown (16.0 points, 98 3-pointers at 40.8 percent) connected on 5-of-8 beyond the arc Saturday, while 6-7 forward Anfernee McLemore (7.3 points, 4.3 rebounds) drained 4-of-6 - his most makes in a game since Dec. 6, 2017, against Gardner-Webb - and has made 9-of-16 over his last four games to raise his percentage for the season to 33.3 percent. “You give him a lot of credit because he didn’t show this as a high school kid coming up,” Mississippi State coach Ben Howland said. “He’s really worked on his game and I know he’s a great kid and good student. ... It makes it very hard to defend them when they have five guys that can shoot on the floor, which plays right in to how they want to play.” Junior point guard Harper averages 15.1 points and six assists per game, while junior center Austin Wiley contributes 8.2 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks in only 14.7 minutes, but the latter is likely to miss a third straight game after aggravating a lower-right leg injury that first occurred in mid-January.

ABOUT ALABAMA (17-12, 8-8): Sophomore wing John Petty (10.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, team-high 52 3-pointers) scored 23 points and shot 5-of-9 from 3-point range against LSU, Donta Hall chipped in 14 points and 10 rebounds for his third straight double-double and Riley Norris had 13 points and nine boards off the bench in what could be the final home game of his career. "This was a winnable game for us. There are no moral victories, not here anymore, especially in my fourth year," Norris said. "But we’ve got to get back to the drawing board, get some rest for some guys and get ready to come back against our in-state rival (Auburn) on Tuesday.” Freshman guard Kira Lewis Jr., who leads the team in scoring (14 points per game) and assists (2.9) and ranks second in 3-pointers (49) and steals (23), scored just seven points against the Tigers and shot 3-of-16 from the floor.

TIP-INS

1. In the first game with the Tigers this season, Petty scored 18 points off the bench and Lewis added 13 points.

2. Auburn needs two more 3-pointers to set a school record with 325 and is within reach of surpassing the SEC single-season record of 361 set by Arkansas during its national runner-up campaign in 1994-95.

3. Prior to the LSU game, Petty had scored just 22 points in his last five games and reached double figures once in seven contests.

PREDICTION: Alabama 76, Auburn 75