Malik Dunbar chased down Aaron Nesmith on a fastbreak and swatted the Vanderbilt guard’s layup attempt off the backboard, twice. On the ensuing Auburn possession, Jared Harper threw a lob to Horace Spencer, who was unable to complete the alley-oop, the ball rattling in and out of the rim.

It was just that kind of afternoon for Auburn inside Memorial Gymnasium on Saturday. Fortunately for the Tigers, the former far outweighed the latter, as their strong defensive effort overshadowed another sluggish performance offensively in a 64-53 win against a Vanderbilt team that remains winless in SEC play this season. It was Auburn’s first win in Memorial Gymnasium since 2000.

“We had great effort and energy defensively, and I thought that was a real key for us,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said on postgame radio.

Auburn (17-8, 6-6 SEC) overcame its second-lowest scoring output of the season on an afternoon in which is shot just 34.7 overall, including just 25 percent from the floor in a first half that saw the Tigers go nearly 8 minutes between made field goals at one point.

Harper gave Auburn some breathing room in the second half, when the point guard knocked down two spot-up 3-pointers to stretch the Tigers’ lead to nine points with 13:02 to play. Another jumper by Harper with 10:44 to play made it a 10-point game — the first time all afternoon that either team led by double digits.

Harper finished with a team-high 16 points, including 11 in the second half, to go with eight of the Tigers’ nine assists on the afternoon, recording three steals and committing just one turnover. It was a stark contrast from his performance in Wednesday’s loss to Ole Miss, when he had six turnovers and just two assists.

Vanderbilt (9-16, 0-12) countered with six unanswered points to draw within four. The Commodores would get that close only one more time the rest of the game, cutting it to four with 4:42 to play and again with 2:55 to go.

Each time, however, Auburn had an answer — even on a day when offense was at times difficult to come by.

“The communication in the huddle was about winning,” Pearl said. “It was about getting stops. It was about executing. They came here to win, and we made some progress.”

After the Commodores cut it to four with just under 3 minutes remaining, Dunbar buried a corner 3-pointer to stretch the lead back to seven, effectively ending Vanderbilt’s upset bid.

“How about Malik Dunbar?” Pearl said. “How about Malik Dunbar? Obviously, the last shot, but he played with a confidence -- he only had one turnover, he had two big blocks, he played 30 minutes.... Malik did a tremendous job coming off the bench."

Dunbar, who had 13 points, was one of four Auburn players to finish in double figures, joining Harper, Bryce Brown (14) and Chuma Okeke (13).

Auburn limited Vanderbilt to 33.3 percent shooting for the game, including a paltry 21.7 (5-of-23) from beyond the arc, and forced 19 Commodores turnovers. While those led to just 17 points for Auburn, the Tigers managed to find enough offensively — particularly in the second half — to avoid what would have been an ugly and costly loss for their NCAA Tournament resume.

“I think we played a complete game offensively and defensively," Harper said. "I think early we played great defensively, the whole game, but kind of struggled to make some shots. But we stayed with it, stayed playing defense and eventually during the second half we were able to continue to play defense and make shots.”

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