The words “survive and advance” are among the most popular terms to use when describing teams’ mentalities in the postseason.

Auburn men’s basketball isn’t in the postseason yet, but as the Tigers inch closer to a Southeastern Conference regular season title, that idea is already starting to take shape.

Those words perfectly describe Auburn’s win Wednesday night, beating a mediocre Arkansas team 67-60 at home, and winning the game despite giving one of its worst offensive efforts of the season.

“Our offense left a lot to be desired tonight,” head coach Bruce Pearl said after the game. “Our execution wasn’t very good. I don’t think our shot selection was great. When you only have 11 assists and 12 turnovers — I don’t think we shared it as well as we have been.”

Pearl praised how the team competed and didn’t let the offense affect the defense, but it’s hard to argue with his assessment of how the Tigers played offensively. Auburn shot 40% from the field — tied for its lowest percentage since a 53-51 slugfest win over Tennessee — and turned the ball over 12 times.

Turnovers typically aren’t a major issue for Auburn, coming into the night third in the country in fewest turnovers per game. While the 12 turnovers are only three more than Auburn’s per game average, it was a sign of an offense that rarely looked in sync for most of the game.

“I just thought we were sloppy in some of our passes and slopped through things and didn’t execute,” Pearl said. “We run a very simple middle ball screen, and we stepped back to enter our offense, and they picked one off, which you could tell all game long they were close. And our guards didn’t really react to that. Not a good effort. Not a good offensive night for Auburn at all.”

Arkansas even took the lead with 3:06 to go in the game, momentarily turning a sluggish performance into a real scare. But Auburn’s defense stepped up, not allowing another field goal the rest of the way.

The defense is what allowed the Tigers to have a sloppy offensive night, but still beat the underachieving, yet talented Razorbacks. Auburn forced 11 turnovers and held Arkansas to 3-for-19 shooting from 3-point range.

The Tigers did an especially good job on Arkansas’ 7-foot-2 center Zvonimir Ivisic, who came into the game shooting 45% from 3, but shot 0-for-9 from beyond the arc Wednesday and 0-for-10 from the field overall. Ivisic’s cold performance comes after averaging 21.7 points over his previous three games.

Auburn also dominated the glass, outrebounding Arkansas 42-29 and grabbing 13 offensive boards compared to the Razorbacks’ four.

“That was very important, because shots aren’t always going to fall,” said Auburn forward Chaney Johnson, who finished with 14 points and six rebounds. “Being on the glass is effort. Being able to stay in front of your defender is effort. When shots are not falling, we’re still able to give good effort. That keeps us in the game.”

Auburn had to will itself to victory Wednesday night, something every great team will have to do from time to time. The most important thing is that the Tigers finished, something that separates good teams from championship teams and now gives Auburn a two-game cushion atop the SEC.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at prauterkus@al.com