The temperatures hovered in the 30s and plenty of reliable transportation was available, but Quantez Robertson chose to walk off the pain of Wednesday’s crushing defeat.

OK, it was only three or four blocks to his nearby apartment, but still, Robertson doesn’t take every defeat as hard as the Tigers’ 68-65 loss to the Gators.

“I just had to try to take it off my mind, because I felt like I let my team down,” Robertson said. “They look for me to make those shots and I felt like I let them down, so I just had to walk home and get them off my chest.”

Robertson scored just 2 points in 29 minutes — both well below his season averages — in the Tigers’ second consecutive loss to start the SEC season. The crux of his disappointment, though, centered on his performance late in the game, when Auburn had a legitimate shot at knocking off the 15-2 Gators.

The senior guard missed the front end of two 1-and-1’s in the final four minutes to cap a night in which he finished 0-for-6 from the line.

Afterward, his senior teammate Rasheem Barrett and coach Jeff Lebo expressed marginal sympathy toward Robertson’s inevitable guilt. Simply put, those were shots he had to make, Barrett said.

“A senior especially has got to be able to step up to the line and make those shots,” Lebo said. “You’ve got to be able to do that, to be able to finish off the play. He didn’t do it. He missed a bunch of front ends. You can’t do that in this league and expect to win.“

About 24 hours later, Robertson couldn’t agree more. But it was a new day, and Robertson said he left all his pent up disappointment on the sidewalks between Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum and his apartment.

“I’ve just got to move on from it,” Robertson said.

Robertson’s struggles, though, have gone beyond Wednesday night.

While he’s still been a force on defense, Robertson has struggled to generate much offensively over the course of the season. He has found double figures just three times this season, and has been frigid from 3-point range, hitting on just eight of his 41 attempts.

“He’s a really competitive kid,” Lebo said. “He’s really fighting himself to make a play or two to hopefully get himself out of his offensive slump. He may be trying too hard. When you do that, it will just pile on.”

Auburn’s shooting struggles, as a whole, came to a head Wednesday — and it wasn’t just Robertson’s doing.

The Tigers certainly haven’t shied away from chucking up 3-pointers, as they lead the SEC with 369 attempts. But the results haven’t matched the desire, as Auburn sits third from the bottom with a 30.9 percent average.

Lebo said Auburn’s shooters have been hindered by a “little green man” in their heads, which has had a direct effect on their confidence.

“He’s winning,” Lebo said. “We have to get through that.”

Robertson put his best foot forward in conquering his respective little green man Wednesday night. It’s only a matter of time before the rest of Auburn’s shooters win their own mental battles, he said.

“Once we get more than one or two people scoring,” Robertson said, “then our offensive troubles will go away.”

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