Observations: Auburn 53, Tennessee 51
Miles Kelly drilled the winner, Chaney Johnson built a wall and Johni Broome sealed a gutsy top-6 win for the Tigers in his return from injury.
(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)
AUBURN — When the ball left the right hand of Miles Kelly, it didn’t matter what the numbers said.
It didn’t matter that Auburn, to that point in the game against Tennessee, had gone 2-19 (10.5%) from deep and 17-57 (29.8%) from the field.
It didn’t matter that, for 39:30 of game time, Tennessee had lived up to its title as the nation’s best 3-point defense — and then some.
It didn’t matter that Auburn, the nation’s best offense in terms of efficiency, was in the middle of its worst shooting performance in several years.
It didn’t matter that the Tigers were having to rely on Johni Broome, who had missed almost two weeks with a sprained ankle and clearly wasn’t at 100%, to carry them well beyond what he was expected to play.
None of that mattered. All that mattered was that Kelly had an open look from the corner, after Broome had saved his own blocked shot attempt from under the rim.
And that’s exactly what Auburn wanted to see, no matter what the numbers said.
“As soon as it left my hands, I knew it was good,” Kelly said. “Those are the moments that I live for.”
Kelly’s 3-pointer touched nothing but the net. And, in the words of Bruce Pearl, there was zero chance it was doing anything but that.
“No doubt,” Pearl said. “I had no doubt it was going in. Absolutely no doubt — and neither did anybody in this building, neither did any of his teammates.”
With Kelly’s massive 3-pointer with 30 seconds left, Auburn went from down by two to up by one. Now, Tennessee was the one that had to find some late offense in what had been a defensive slugfest that wasn’t for the faint of heart.
Instead, Auburn got its third straight stop. Tennessee point guard Zakai Zeigler kicked the ball out to stretch 4-man Igor Milicic Jr., who drove but was denied at the rim on a block by Chaney Johnson. Broome grabbed the rebound and called timeout.
After Tahaad Pettiford split his two free throws to put Auburn up by two, the Tigers needed their fourth straight stop. Tennessee drew up a play to get Zeigler a go-ahead 3-pointer in the corner, but the contested shot didn’t end up like Kelly’s open one.
Broome gathered the bouncing ball in a mad scramble and lobbed it down the open floor. Precious seconds ticked off the clock as Johnson sprinted down to grab it and flip it off the backboard, ensuring Tennessee would have no shot at another winner.
The buzzer sounded. The backboard lit up in neon red. The scoreboard showed a final score of Auburn 53, Tennessee 51.
And one of the loudest crowds in Neville Arena history came unglued as the Tigers ran towards them in the stands.
“Everybody who came out and supported us, that gives us an extra boost when shots aren't falling and we're not playing the best,” Broome said. “We're able to hit a shot or two or get a stop or two, and we feed off their energy. They provided energy every time we needed it.”
The highest-ranked home matchup in Auburn basketball history — Auburn at unanimous No. 1, Tennessee at No. 6 — “wasn’t a very pretty game,” as Pearl put it.
The ESPN primetime audience at home witnessed both teams combine to shoot 35-112 (31.3%) from the field and 7-42 (16.7%) from deep.
Last season, when College GameDay came to town, Auburn had an effective field goal percentage of 34.5% and lost by 11 to Kentucky. This season, Auburn had an effective field goal percentage of 33.6% and beat Tennessee by 2.
Tennessee, with its No. 1 defensive rating, was as advertised on that end of the floor. But Auburn still found a way to get enough points and stops in the final minutes to walk out with its program-record seventh win over a ranked opponent — and its national-best 11th Quad 1 victory — this season.
An Auburn team that almost exclusively won by double-digits last season has now won six games by five points or less, including three of its last four victories. These Tigers can win the ugly ones just as much as they win the good-looking ones.
“I know we can play better,” Pearl said. “So, look, I give Tennessee all the credit for how poorly we played at times. But the good thing is our guys are all feeling good knowing that we can play better, and we still were able to beat a great team.”
Here are four Observations from Auburn’s 53-51 win over Tennessee, including the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Night.