How Auburn basketball got tough to beat Mississippi State after Chris Moore halftime speech

NASHVILLE — Dylan Cardwell wanted to keep it family friendly.

Auburn basketball got punked in the first half of its hair-raising 73-66 win Saturday over Mississippi State in the semifinals of the SEC Tournament. The players admitted it postgame because it was undeniable; the Bulldogs had 12 offensive rebounds in the opening 20 minutes. The Tigers had 10 rebounds total.

Chris Moore was livid.

"Pull your britches up," Dylan Cardwell said of Moore's animated halftime message. "He didn't say that, but that's the PG-13 version. We've got to man up at the end of the day. They're a very physical team. We knew it was going to be a rock fight coming here. But at the end of the day, what are you willing to do to get a championship?"

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Moore is the epitome of a lunchpail player. He doesn't shoot the ball often, and when he does it's often a put-back attempt because he battled for an offensive rebound. He defends well, hustles hard and seems to have a gravitational pull to any loose basketballs within a 94-foot radius.

That grit has earned him the right to chew out his teammates when he deems it necessary.

"Our soul and heart of our team," Chad Baker-Mazara said of Moore. "A lot of guys when CMo talks or speaks, you can see all the guys literally just focus on him and actually listen to what he's saying. Especially me because we play the same position, so he stays on my ear a lot."

Moore dropped a modest five points against the Bulldogs, but each of his buckets — a 3-pointer from the top of the key and a second-chance layup — poured gasoline on the Auburn bench. Moore, a senior in his fourth year with the Tigers, has totaled 18 points on 8-for-9 shooting over his last four games.

He had 11 points in his previous 15 appearances leading into this run. He's seen his role grow after Lior Berman went down with an ACL injury against Kentucky on Feb. 17.

"I'm proud of CMo, man," freshman point guard Aden Holloway said. "He was going through a rough little patch, wasn't getting as many minutes as he should. He was just ready when the coaches gave him his minutes back. He was just ready to step in, hit big shots, get great rebounds, offensive rebounds, second-chance points. He just does all the little things and stays positive. I'm super proud of him."

The Tigers went on to outrebound Mississippi State by four in the second half. The Bulldogs had 10 second-chance points in the first frame. They had two in the second.

"He was just telling us (that) it's us, man," Holloway said of Moore's speech. "It's nobody else but us. These guys in the locker room. These 11 guys. We've just got to stick together no matter what negativity comes our way. Just fight it, and that's what he did."

Moore didn't want to take credit for motivating his team until a reporter let him know his teammates had already spilled the beans: "It was me," Moore said while cracking a smile with an ice pack on his shoulder. "I wasn't trying to take the credit for it, but it was pretty much everybody. Everybody had their own opinions about the things that we can fix in our games and everybody listened. I feel like that's what makes us special."

The Tigers will look to win their third SEC Tournament title in program history Sunday (Noon CT, ESPN).

"It was definitely some things said," Moore added. "It's an early morning game, sometimes people don't always wake up. We had to come in here at halftime and set the record straight. We've got to come in here and be aggressive, come out here and fight.

"We said yesterday it was going to be a dogfight. I'm glad we answered the call 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 X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: How Chris Moore inspired Auburn basketball to SEC Tournament victory