Steven Pearl said something to his father, Bruce Pearl, during the leadup to the opening tip between Auburn and Ole Miss. It was a slight suggestion, nothing farfetched, but it stuck with the Tigers’ ninth-year head coach throughout the evening.

And it proved to be crucial for No. 21 Auburn in its 82-73 road victory in Oxford, Miss., on Tuesday night.

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Bruce Pearl called a rare early timeout in the first half at The Pavilion following a turnover by center Dylan Cardwell. The junior big man attempted an inlet pass to the post, but it sailed high and out of bounds. The Tigers, at that point, trailed by seven with 12:24 to play in the first half. They were shooting 45.5 percent from the field, but Cardwell’s errant pass was the team’s third turnover in three minutes as the Rebels built their early advantage and what was their biggest lead of the night.

So, even with the under-12 media timeout looming, Bruce Pearl wanted to talk things over and calm his team down.

“Steven had planted a seed in my head that if we got a rough patch, get an early timeout and try to settle them down,” Bruce Pearl said. “And so having Steven say that to me pregame, it was in my mind, that if it happened, and so we did. And we were very calmed out in the timeout. We talked about what we weren’t going.”

What Auburn wasn’t doing early on was defending at the typically high level it has become accustomed to. Ole Miss was getting to the basket early, with four of its first six makes from the field coming in the form of dunks or layups as Kermit Davis’ team built that early seven-point edge.

“Bottom line is they were driving to the basket,” Bruce Pearl said. “It’s like, ‘Look, how can we be talking about gaps—help, help the helper, sink—and they’re driving right around us, slipped around us, and they’re getting to the rim? How’s that possible? It’s not. So, you guys better get in the paint and make them kick it out.’ And we started to do a better job of building a wall and not letting them drive around us.”

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After that rare timeout, Auburn’s defense settled in some, and Ole Miss’ lead immediately dwindled, as the Tigers went on an 8-0 out of the huddle to get back into the game before ultimately seizing control in the second half.

Ole Miss started the game 4-of-5 on layups and dunks, but following the timeout, the Rebels made just nine of their final 19 attempts on such shots. They also started to settle for more long-range shots, attempting a season-high tying 25 3-point attempts against the Tigers. While Ole Miss connected on nine of those 3-point attempts — also matching a season-best mark — Auburn was more willing to live with that considering Ole Miss is among the nation’s worst perimeter shooting teams this season. The Rebels shoot just 29.6 percent from deep, which is 332nd nationally (and tenths of a percentage point better than the Tigers are from beyond the arc).

“We got to be a lot better defensively if we want to win this conference,” senior wing Allen Flanigan said.

More than just adjusting defensively, though, the early timeout helped Auburn settle down offensively after Cardwell’s turnover. The Tigers committed just seven turnovers over the game’s final 32-plus minutes, including just five of them in the second half. They finished the game with just 10 total turnovers, the last of which was a 10-second violation in the final two minutes with Auburn ahead by double digits.

The Tigers are averaging just 10.25 turnovers per game in SEC play after averaging 13.6 in nonconference action, including 15.75 per game in their last four before the start of the conference slate.

“The Georgia, USC, Memphis losses: high turnovers leading to transition, so if we wanted to start winning, that was just first and foremost on our list,” Bruce Pearl said. “And so, the question is, ‘Where do you turn the ball over?’ ‘Johni, if we’re going to run offense through you, you can’t give the ball to the other team when you get doubled,’ or whatever. ‘Al, you can’t — take the open shot. Don’t shot-fake and get closer every time and get stripped and ripped. ‘Wendell, you’ve got to pick your spots when you get into the paint.’ And what it does is it just doesn’t allow the opponent to get easy baskets. That’s it.

“Don’t turn it over. Don’t give them easy baskets. It’s a pretty easy formula to win. And our defense is pretty good. So, give your defense a chance to get back and get matched up and get covered.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.