Observations: Tennessee 77, Auburn 69
The Tigers got beaten at their own game in Knoxville, ending the streak and sending them to a needed midweek break with plenty to correct.
Auburn and Tennessee likely had similar game plans heading into this one.
That’s pretty fitting, considering these have been the top two teams in the SEC over the better part of the last decade — and because Auburn head coach Steven Pearl played at Tennessee for five seasons.
Pack the paint, win with physicality down low and make the other guys settle for jumpers. That’s the identity Auburn has developed during what had been a season-flipping four-game winning streak. It’s also the identity that Tennessee has had for several years running under Rick Barnes.
That means the showdown in snowy Knoxville on Saturday night was going to come down to which side was better at playing that brand of basketball.
And the scoreboard said it all: Tennessee beat Auburn, 77-69, in a game in which the host Volunteers led for all but the first 39 seconds.
“Credit Tennessee,” Pearl said afterwards. “They beat us at our game. They pushed us around. They punked us.”
Auburn didn’t get completely blown out at Tennessee, although it looked early that it might happen. Consider the following sequences:
The Tigers were down by 10 less than five minutes into the game, then cut it back to four.
They trailed by 16 with 5:22 left in the first half, but they had it down to six less than two minutes into the second half.
They went from down 10 with 17:09 to go to down four in about six minutes of game time.
They went on a 7-0 run immediately after the Volunteers got back up by 10 in the “fourth quarter.”
They cut the lead back down to six on 3-pointers with 5:24 and then 1:55 left.
That’s real fight on the road, especially when the opening minutes went so poorly and there were a couple of injury concerns — a bandaged issue for leading scorer Keyshawn Hall’s finger that seemed to bother him, plus an extended second-half exit for Kevin Overton after he accidentally took a knee to the back of the head.
But, 22 games into the season, the time for pats on the back for battling have long since passed. Much more importantly in this one, the major theme was that Auburn kept having to dig itself out of holes and never could quite get back to the surface.
“Once we got close multiple times, we just made a lot of undisciplined, silly mistakes offensively and defensively,” Pearl said. “We weren't able to capitalize and ultimately get back in the game. Really disappointing performance. That one was gettable.
“We just weren't very good tonight, and a lot of that had to do with Tennessee.”
Tennessee did Auburn better than Auburn did Auburn. Or maybe it was Tennessee did Tennessee better than Auburn could do Tennessee?
“They did what we were trying to do to them — and they did it much better than we did,” Pearl said.
Either way, Auburn will head into its lone midweek break of a long SEC season with plenty to correct after seeing its four-game winning streak come to a frustrating end. It will be another test of the team’s ability to not let one result affect its play in the next one, as it will have extra time to get ready for a visit from rival Alabama next Saturday.
“One of the things that definitely holds true is that it's never as good as you think it is, and it's never as bad as you think it is,” Pearl said. “For me, it's not letting the highs get too high and the lows get too lows. This one's going to hurt and it's going to sting.
“But I'd be an idiot if I hung on this for too long. Let's watch the film, break it down for you guys 1-on-1, learn from it like we've been doing all conference play, and find a way to get better from it.”
Here are three big Observations from Auburn’s 8-point road loss at Tennessee, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and Quote of the Night.
Auburn played right into Tennessee’s hand with all those 3s
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