Wally Tinker, game ball in hand, strolled past the free-throw line and stopped about 7 feet from the hoop outside the paint.

With 9,927 fans cheering as loudly as they had all night in Auburn’s 89-80 upset victory Wednesday over Mississippi State, the former Tiger wasted little time before sending a high-arching shot toward the hoop, stationed right around the same place he hit the first basket in Beard-
Eaves-Memorial Coliseum more than 41 years ago.

With an old-school, off-the-glass swish, Tinker made it look just as easy as four of the Tigers’ six seniors made it look all Wednesday night, an historically fitting ending not only to the arena’s history, but for the largely overlooked Senior Night.

“We had six seniors that you want to honor and send this place out in the right way,” coach Jeff Lebo said. “There have been so many memories in this place.”

Tay Waller, DeWayne Reed, Brendon Knox and Lucas Hargrove all made sure the memory from Wednesday night — 41 years, one month and 24 days since the Tigers opened Memorial Coliseum with a 90-71 victory over LSU — would be just as positive.

The four players combined for 78 of Auburn’s 89 points in the best inside-outside performance of the season, giving the Tigers five consecutive home victories to close out the arena.

“We came out with a different mentality,” Waller said. “We saw all of the people here and we didn’t want anyone to go home sad. We felt like we had to fight for all the players of Auburn’s past.

“The win just made tonight all the much better.”

The win didn’t solidify anything for Auburn’s seeding hopes for the upcoming SEC Tournament, but it certainly didn’t hurt. The loss for Mississippi State, the SEC West Division leader, may have been detrimental for its fleeting NCAA Tournament hopes.

“I think it has nothing to do with it,” Mississippi State coach Rick Stansbury said. “We have to go home and beat Tennessee because that’s the only game that matters right now.”

Waller had a lot to do with it, hitting 6-of-11 3-pointers to finish with a team-high 22 points. He sunk his first shot of the game and nailed his last, a deep 3 from the corner with 2:43 to play, which put Auburn up 8 and served as the final answer to Mississippi State’s last rally of the game.

Over the past four games, Waller has averaged 26.5 points and is 27-of-42 from 3-point range.

“He’s been unbelievable shooting the basketball,” Lebo said. “We’ll continue to ride him for as long as we can.”

Knox came in a close second behind Waller with 21 points, but had a much taller task to deal with on offense and defense against Jarvis
Varnado, the NCAA’s all-time blocks leader. He overachieved at both ends, imposing an unmatched physical presence in the key, getting

Varnado in foul trouble and making some key free throws to finish 1 point shy of his career high.

On defense, Knox stood tough enough against Varnado, who finished with 14 points.

“He usually plays more physical than he did tonight,” Knox said. “On offense, I went straight at him.”

Reed and Hargrove, both of whom spent all four years at Auburn, and each of whom have had their ups and downs this season, were solid, scoring 19 and 16 points, respectively.

Hargrove had one of the bigger baskets of the game, immediately answering a Dee Bost 3-pointer, which tied the game, 65-65, with 9 minutes to play. A Reed 3-pointer on the following possession put even more distance between the teams and set up a celebratory finish.

Sophomore Frankie Sullivan had the final 2 Auburn points in the building on two free throws, and Hargrove launched the game ball into the crowd as the final horn sounded on the building’s final game.

“We didn’t play the whole season like we wanted to, but it was great to finish like this,” Knox said. “To send off the coliseum like this felt real good.”

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