Auburn capped off the second leg of a long road trip Saturday with a 64-58 loss against Mississippi State at Humphrey Coliseum in Starkville, Miss.

The No. 8 ranked Tigers have lost two consecutive games coming off its 11-game win streak and rise into the top-10 of the AP poll.

Auburn, now 16-4 overall and 5-2 in the SEC, will head back home for the first time since Tuesday morning having completed the most difficult week its had so far this season.

Here are three takeaways:

What to make from Auburn’s toughest week of the season.

Auburn never faced a week quite like this during his 11-game win streak. Head coach Bruce Pearl said entering the week that he knew Auburn’s performance in this two-game road swing against Alabama and Mississippi State would teach him a lot of lessons.

Lessons indeed learned.

This week was abnormal in the sense that Auburn never went back home between games. Geographically, it wouldn’t have made sense to.

And what Pearl wanted to see is how his team would compare to its top-10 national ranking, and how it would elevate its play after two early SEC road wins against two teams at the bottom of the league standings early on.

But when facing two teams on track to make the NCAA Tournament in Alabama and Mississippi State, Auburn’s offense struggled.

What’s to make of this is Auburn knows exactly where it has found success on the road and where it has struggled.

Auburn found a way to dictate its own defensive style against Alabama. It found resolve to come back from a 14-point halftime hole and have a Chad Baker-Mazara free throw to tie the game in the final 15 seconds.

Against Mississippi State, Auburn kept itself in a game against a Bulldogs’ defense that Auburn had a very hard time with.

Winning on the road is tough in any league. Auburn has been close twice this week, but hasn’t had enough to get over that hump.

Two big takeaways from Auburn’s road trip? It’s found a way to bring its defense on the road. It has certainly not found a way to bring its offense. So let’s dive into those.

Auburn’s defense travels, but rebounding needs work

There’s been and will be a lot of talk on how Auburn can shoot the ball better in its road game — and there will be more on that below — but its defense? Well that’s been something Auburn can rely on no matter what floor it’s on.

Auburn held Alabama, one of the best offenses in the nation, to below 40% shooting from the field and only 79 points at Coleman Coliseum. Auburn lost that game because of first-half turnovers and poor shooting.

Auburn allowed only 51 points to Arkansas in a dominant win at Bud Walton Arena. Vanderbilt only scored 65 against Auburn. Auburn allowed just 69 points to Appalachian State in an early December loss, but it was Auburn’s defense that provided a catalyst for an Auburn comeback which gave it a chance to win in the first place.

And that was the case again in Starkville. Auburn held Mississippi State to just 21 points in the first half and 32% shooting. The Bulldogs shot 1-12 on 3s in the first half.

In the second, Auburn held Mississippi State without an offensive rebound for the first 15 minutes but gave up multiple crucial ones in the final five minutes. Allowing so many second chances is a bad formula in a game where points were hard to come by.

Auburn allowed 10-31 shooting to Mississippi State in the first half. But it regressed in the second, allowing 60% from the field and 44% on 3-pointers.

And those stats are made more impressive by how poorly Auburn rebounded.

Mississippi State took a 27-14 rebounding edge into halftime including 11 offensive rebounds to Auburn’s two. Those halftime stats were very similar to Auburn’s win against Texas A&M, where Auburn adjusted to an Aggies team that was dominant on the glass.

Saturday’s game finished with 45 Mississippi State rebounds to Auburn’s 29.

Mississippi State and Texas A&M are the two most physical teams Auburn has faced this season, and that showed up in beating Auburn on the glass. Dylan Cardwell getting into early foul trouble did not help the matter.

And yet, Auburn’s top-10 defense, per KenPom’s efficiency ratings, was enough.

Its offense? Well, maybe not

Part of this could simply be explained by the fact that Mississippi State is one of the best defenses Auburn has played this season. This game could have been in Neville Arena and the shooting stats may not have been very different. It’s the style Bulldogs’ head coach Chris Jans has made a staple in Starkville, and it did a number on Auburn.

Auburn’s shooting on the road has been poor all season, and it has led to losses.

Auburn shot 3-27 on 3s against Appalachian State. It shot 5-25 on deep against Alabama. It lost both of those games.

It shot 19-56 overall from the field against Mississippi State and 6-24 on 3s.

It was 8-25 on 3s against Vanderbilt and 7-18 against Arkansas on the road and won both those games.

Auburn has scored more than 80 points 14 times this season. Auburn hit the 80-point mark in road wins against Arkansas and Vanderbilt. When it didn’t? It lost to both Alabama and Appalachian State.

When Auburn has found a bit of shooting success to pair with its good road defense, it has won. When it hasn’t? The results have looked more like this.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]