BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- Auburn coach Cliff Ellis doesn't care how his eighth-ranked Tigers win games, just as long as they pull out the victories.

It's Penn coach Fran Dunphy who cares how Auburn wins, especially when he thinks a questionable call was responsible for the Tigers' 77-70 victory Saturday night.

"Get the play right, that's all I ask," Dunphy said. "And give me an explanation."

The questionable play came after Penn's Michael Jordan cut Auburn's lead to 73-69 with 1:27 to play.

An Auburn (5-1) foul sent Frank Brown to the line with 50 seconds to play. The officials had erroneously called for two shots, when the actual call was for a one-and-one.

Brown missed the first shot and Auburn got the rebound, but turned the ball over to the officials. The score table -- and an irate Ellis -- then corrected the officials, who in turn awarded Auburn the ball because the Tigers had claimed the rebound off the missed free throw.

Penn quickly fouled Mamadou N'diaye, who made one of his free throws to make it 74-69 with 47 seconds to play.

"At least stop the game and give me an explanation. I asked the one guy in front of me to not put the ball inbounds to just give me an explanation first," Dunphy said.

"We believe it should be constituted as an inadvertent whistle and then it goes to the possession arrow."

The possession arrow would have given Penn the ball.

Ellis said he thought the officials got the call right.

"We got the ball," he said. "It was a one-and-one and we got the rebound. It was our ball."

Auburn got 16 points each from Doc Robinson and Scott Pohlman and overcame horrendous free-throw shooting to squeak out the win.

"We have to play these types of games because they get us where we want," Ellis said. "All I'm looking for is effort because a score is a score."

The Tigers took their biggest lead of the game, 71-64, on Reggie Sharp's 3-pointer with 3:36 to play. It was their last basket of the game.

Jordan answered with a 3 of his own that made it 71-67. The Quakers (1-4) then set out to foul the rest of the way and Auburn struggled to convert, making six of 10 down the stretch. Overall, the Tigers made just 16-of-33 foul shots.

"I am not going to worry about the free throw problem," Ellis said. "As long as we shoot the ball straight and get the offensive rebounds the shooting will come to us."

Auburn's Chris Porter, in foul trouble most of the game, scored just four points in 23 minutes.

His first point came on a free throw with 6:51 to play and his first basket came on a layup with 5:20 to play. He finished 1-of-6 from the floor and 2-of-6 from the line.

"We don't look to Chris Porter as this team, he is part of this team," Ellis said. "We don't go to one guy, that is not the way we play."

Auburn scored 26 of its points off of turnovers -- 18 in the second half -- which Dunphy said was the difference.

"I thought we handled the pressure really well in the first half but I think we gave into that pressure in the second half," Dunphy said. "That's part of what they do and we helped them by turning the ball over and giving them some easy points."

Jordan led Penn with 20 points. He was the Quakers only player in double figures.

N'diaye had 14 points and 10 rebounds for Auburn. Daymeon Fishback added 12.