AUBURN — Auburn basketball saw its season come crashing down in an NCAA Tournament loss to Yale on Friday. The absence of Chad Baker-Mazara didn't help the Tigers in their effort to fend off a Bulldogs team that was intent on an upset.

Baker-Mazara was assessed a flagrant 2 foul and ejected 3:01 into the March Madness matchup for throwing an elbow at Yale's August Mahoney. Coach Bruce Pearl said Baker-Mazara's infraction was in retaliation for an earlier shot from Mahoney. The television broadcast showed Mahoney hitting Baker-Mazara in the upper chest moments before Baker-Mazara threw his elbow.

Speaking to reporters for the first time since his postgame news conference in Spokane, Washington, Pearl discussed Baker-Mazara, who has been the subject of some online criticism.

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"Chad made a mistake," Pearl said Thursday. "He should have never done it. He should have walked away. There were several times during the course of the season where he made the same mistake. What a really difficult way to learn from that mistake. At the same time, I would also like to remind our fans and anybody listening that Chad owned up to that mistake. And he's apologized for that mistake. And he's taken responsibility for it, although the consequences were really, really significant. And he feels really bad. He's struggling with that right now.

"I'm just going to tell the Auburn family, while I know you're disappointed, if somebody was messing with your son, you'd stand up for your son a little bit, wouldn't you? Stop messing with my son. Stop it. He apologized. He made a mistake. And I'm calling you out. I'm not having it. For those on social media that want to continue, unfollow those people. Stop it."

Baker-Mazara averaged 10 points, 3.7 rebounds, 2.2 assists and a steal in his first season with the Tigers. He was previously at Northwest Florida State College in 2022-23, San Diego State in 2021-22 and Duquesne in 2020-21.

"I thought that the flagrant 2 could have been a flagrant 1 and I don't think a whole lot of people would have commented on it," Pearl said. "Could it have been a flagrant 2? Yes, it could have been. But three minutes into the game when there really wasn't anything where we were having any problems on the floor with temperatures rising or things like that. I knew right there we were in trouble. ...

"There was a reason why Chad Baker was SEC all-tournament team. He was one of the best players in postseason in the SEC. I thought the fact that it was retaliatory, that five seconds earlier Chad Baker got hit in the throat on a flagrant play that was missed, should have been taken into consideration. I just thought the finality of, you work all year long to put yourself in that position and then on a judgment call remove him from the game. I just thought it was too excessive."

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Chad Baker-Mazara: Bruce Pearl defenders Auburn wing after ejection