Auburn was trailing Mississippi State by one point with just more than four minutes to play when Mississippi State’s Josh Hubbard hurled up a deep 3-point attempt, which rattled off the rim and off the backboard.

Underneath Mississippi State’s basket was Auburn’s Johni Broome, KD Johnson, Jaylin Williams and Tre Donaldson. For the Bulldogs, Tolu Smith III was the only one under the basket, while the rest of Mississippi State’s players stayed scattered about the perimeter.

It was four orange Auburn jerseys to one white Mississippi State jersey.

Yet it was Smith in the white Mississippi State jersey who came down with the rebound, making for one of the Bulldogs’ 14 offensive rebounds against the Tigers Saturday afternoon from Starkville’s Humphrey Coliseum.

Less than 15 seconds later, Mississippi State’s Cameron Matthews found himself at the free throw line, where he went 1-for-2, missing his second attempt but gathering his own rebound and converting on a second-chance layup.

Matthews alone finished the afternoon with six offensive rebounds and three second-chance buckets as he led Mississippi State with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

On Saturday, that 15-second sequence alone helped paint the picture of what led to Auburn dropping its second-straight road game in a low-scoring, 64-58 loss to the Bulldogs, who out-rebounded the Tigers 45-30.

“When you get out-rebounded like we got out-rebounded, it was something,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said during the post-game radio broadcast.

Auburn’s struggles on the glass came just one day after Pearl harped on the matter.

During his press conference Friday, Pearl called the Tigers’ defensive rebounding efforts his “No. 1 concern.”

“I hate to be right sometimes,” Pearl said. “But my concern of where we were with our defensive rebounding — that’s a big part of it.”

Against Mississippi State, Auburn allowed the Bulldogs pull down 14 offensive rebounds while the Tigers logged 24 defensive rebounds — meaning Mississippi State gathered its own missed shot 36.8% of the time.

To make matters worse, the Bulldogs found scoring success after collecting their own rebounds as Mississippi State tallied 12 second-chance points — of which five came in the final 3:50 of play.

“In the second half, while we were better offensively, we gave up too many second-chance points,” Pearl said.

Conversely, Auburn managed to come down with a rebound on just 16.2% of its own misses and tallied a less-than-impressive three second-chance points.

And if watching Saturday’s performance on the glass felt familiar, it’s because it was familiar.

In its win streak-snapping loss to Alabama on Wednesday, Auburn also experienced rebounding struggles — particularly on the defensive end as the Crimson Tide tallied 16 offensive rebounds, which led to 21 second-chance points.

In the Tigers’ last two times out, they’ve allowed their opponents in Alabama and Mississippi State to come down with an offensive rebound 36% of the time, which has led to Auburn giving up 33 total second-chance points. All the while, the Tigers tallied just 15 combined second-chance points against he Crimson Tide and Bulldogs.

“At the end of both games, we didn’t get stops, we didn’t get rebounds,” Pearl said. “That’s what cost us at Alabama. And that’s partly what cost us at Mississippi State. Free-throw check out, we don’t get it. I think, in some ways, we lost both games kind of the same way.”