Survive and advance is the mantra in March, and that’s what Auburn men’s basketball did Thursday, beating Alabama State in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The performance itself, though, wasn’t one that Auburn is going to think of too favorably. Head coach Bruce Pearl called it an even worse performance than what Auburn had against Yale last season, an upset loss that sent the Tigers home after the first round of the tournament.

Pearl’s main gripe with how Auburn played Thursday came down to energy. Part of that was how the Tigers treated each possession.

Not valuing possessions on both offense and defense hurt Pearl’s team, but against Alabama State, Auburn had the talent to make up for it.

“That’s the biggest difference right now between the way we were playing earlier in the season and the way we’re playing right now,” Pearl said postgame. “You can do that against a team that you’re better than, but you can’t do that — we won’t be able to do that from this point forward.”

Pearl added that Auburn’s systems “don’t really work” without great effort and energy. One example of that was Auburn’s sharpness on defense, particularly when closing out on the perimeter.

Alabama State wasn’t able to capitalize much — shooting just 24% from 3 on 25 attempts — but that can quickly change against better opposition.

Creighton, the team Auburn will play next, shot 11-for-24 from 3-point range in its first-round win over Louisville, the type of efficiency that can flip a game.

“We won’t beat Creighton playing the way we played tonight,” Pearl said. “We can play better. We know we can tighten things up.”

The worst stretch for Auburn against Alabama State came in the first half when the Hornets went on a 16-4 run and trailed by just a point with a little over a minute left before halftime.

Auburn ended the half on a 9-0 run and never let the Hornets back in the game after that, but the performance was still well short of what the regular season proved Auburn is capable of.

The Tigers shot 45% from the field, but one criticism that arose was the type of shot they’d often get. Auburn shot 35 3-pointers, tying a season-high set in the first game of the season.

“We can’t shoot thirty-something 3s against a team that’s tallest player on the court at one point was like six-nine,” Auburn center Dylan Cardwell told reporters in the locker room after the game. “We’re in the SEC, we’re way bigger than them. We gotta take advantage of the opportunities.”

Against Creighton, Auburn won’t have that same size advantage, but it still won’t be able to settle offensively like it did against Alabama State.

It goes back to the point Pearl made of valuing every possession, whether it’s on offense, defense, against a 16-seed or in the national championship.

Auburn got away with not always doing that against Alabama State. But from here on out, it may not have that luxury.

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