Winning on the road in the Southeastern Conference is hard. Doing so against an unpredictable Vanderbilt team in Memorial Gymnasium after a tough loss is an underrated challenge that Auburn conquered Tuesday night.

The No. 1-ranked Tigers beat Vanderbilt 80-68, avoiding the classic trap game ahead of a showdown with No. 2 Alabama on Saturday.

Not only did the matchup with Vanderbilt have the makings of a trap game with the Iron Bowl of Basketball on the horizon, but it came directly after Auburn suffered its first loss of SEC play against Florida. The Tigers lost that game by nine, but trailed by 21 during the second half, looking emphatically like the second-best team for the final 25 minutes of the game.

It was enough for head coach Bruce Pearl to point toward Auburn’s effort, specifically when asked about stopping Florda guard Walter Clayton Jr., who finished the game with 19 points.

Concerns of a letdown against Vanderbilt may have diminished slightly after the result against Florida, but Pearl pushed back on the idea of that loss affecting the next game.

“I honestly don’t think it had any effect,” Pearl said after beating Vanderbilt. “So far, this team has done a pretty good job of taking it one at a time, and we’ve learned a lot from our wins. Florida beat us because they were better.”

The win over Vanderbilt wasn’t a perfect performance, but a double-digit win at Memorial Gymnasium won’t be taken for granted by anyone in the Auburn locker room. The Tigers started hot, opening the game on a 15-0 run, but found themselves trailing early in the second half.

But the response was there, something that never quite came — or at least not for long enough — against Florida. Auburn outscored Vanderbilt 32-19 in the final 13:51, finishing the game close to how it started.

The Tigers also got performances that showed their depth, highlighted by 21 points from Denver Jones, a game after finishing without a field goal on four attempts. Chaney Johnson also stepped up, scoring 20 points on 9-for-10 shooting, providing a dominant frontcourt presence on a night in which star center Johni Broome was inefficient offensively by his standards.

“Denver Jones had an unbelievable first half, just carrying us. Bounce-back game from the last one‚” Pearl said on Auburn’s postgame radio show. “Second half, Chaney Johnson absolutely took over. Mike Burgomaster dialed up some really good looks. But at the end of the day, all it was, was the wisdom to recognize Chaney had the advantage on the inside. He took advantage of it.”

Pearl has talked all season about the team’s emphasis on respecting each opponent, whether its Vermont on Night 1 or Vanderbilt on a Tuesday in February before arguably the biggest regular season game in program history.

Even in the days after the Florida loss, Pearl acknowledged where Auburn can improve, but also credited the loss mostly to how well the Gators played.

“Florida played outstanding. They played like a Final Four team,“ Pearl said Monday. ”There were definitely some things we could have done. We missed 40 shots. We missed seven free throws in the second half.”

Next is the highly anticipated Iron Bowl of Basketball, a fierce, evolving rivalry that will for the first time pit the No. 1 and No. 2 team in the country against each other.

That one will be hard to look past, but Pearl wouldn’t have worried about that anyway.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m