Bruce Pearl hates it when he’s right, at least when it comes to Auburn’s opponents.

It took less than a day of studying Iowa to foresee what kind of problems the Hawkeyes could present in the Tigers’ opening-round NCAA Tournament matchup. Iowa can score in bunches, Pearl said Monday. It’s a team that can catch fire from deep, and that made the Hawkeyes “pretty, pretty dangerous” in the postseason.

So, when Auburn opened up a 17-point lead on Iowa in the second half Thursday night at Legacy Arena, Pearl braced for what could come. No lead was safe against the eighth-seeded Hawkeyes, not even in what turned out to be a de-facto home game for the Tigers at Legacy Arena, which transformed into The Jungle in the second half when Auburn opened up its massive lead.

In a season full of narrow defeats and struggles to close out tight games late, Auburn finally held on. The Tigers withstood a barrage from the Hawkeyes down the stretch and advanced to the second round with an 83-75 win in Birmingham.

That 17-point Auburn lead, it turned out, was too much for Iowa to overcome — but it was close. The Tigers built that lead thanks to a 16-5 run that included four 3-pointers, three of them coming from freshman point guard Tre Donaldson. After going just 1-of-9 from deep in the first half, Auburn caught fire in the second half, connecting on seven of its 13 attempts from beyond the arc.

Iowa, which went 0-for-9 from deep in the first half, started to find some rhythm of its own from deep, and it helped Fran McCaffery’s team nearly erase that 17-point deficit. After Auburn extended its lead to 58-41 on an Allen Flanigan and-1 with 10:50 to go, Iowa responded with a 21-8 run to cut the Tigers’ lead to four points at the 4:10 mark. During that run, the Hawkeyes made six of their 10 shots, including 3-of-6 from deep.

Although the Hawkeyes heated up from deep in the second half, draining seven of their 18 attempts after halftime, Auburn never let Iowa get within a single possession. When the Hawkeyes cut it to four the first time, Wendell Green Jr. responded with a strong drive down the lane to push Auburn’s lead back to six with 4:27 left. Iowa again cut it to four, but Green proceeded to make four consecutive free throws to give the Tigers some breathing room.

The Tigers pushed the lead back to double digits three times in the final 2:15, including with 1:18 to go when Green found Jaylin Williams for a two-handed slam in transition. Iowa answered with another 3-pointer with 66 seconds to play, but Auburn never relented. Flanigan banked one in on a drive to the right side of the lane, and the Tigers sealed the game at the free-throw line as they advanced to the second round for the fourth time in as many NCAA Tournament appearances under Pearl.

Auburn will face the winner of top-seeded Houston and 16th-seeded Northern Kentucky on Saturday at Legacy Arena.

AL.com will update this post.

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