SEC Tournament Observations: Tennessee 72, Auburn 62

The Tigers played three quarters of a game that could get them into the Big Dance. But the fourth quarter was a major implosion.

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Auburn had been here before: A blown double-digit lead to one of the SEC’s best programs, away from home, with less than 10 minutes to go in the second half.

The first time it happened was January 24 at Florida. Auburn was up by as many as 18 before the defending national champion and eventual SEC champion stormed all the way back to tie the game with 9:07 to play.

January Auburn rallied from there. The Tigers outscored the Gators by a mark of 22-13 the rest of the way, stringing together clutch buckets with timely stops to get a win that still stands as one of the best victories in all of college basketball this season.

But, as its name suggests, January Auburn had not been around in a while — not against a high-quality opponent away from home, at least. And March Auburn had to find a way to turn back the calendar a couple of months in order to fight back and get a win that would put it in a much better spot for an NCAA Tournament bid.

March Auburn had been up by 10 points on Tennessee with 10:26 to play in an SEC Tournament matchup in Nashville. Freshman phenom Nate Ament then scored eight unanswered points before an alley-oop attempt to Elyjah Freeman was physically denied at the rim by a chasing Felix Okpara.

On the other end, Ja’Kobi Gillespie tied the game with a fast-break layup amidst the chaos. Auburn called a timeout with Bridgestone Arena rocking.

In the huddle, Steven Pearl and his staff knew exactly what they wanted to do in order to try and stop the Tennessee run and retake the lead: Get to the foul line.

Tennessee’s ultra-physical defense had been whistled for six fouls by the 13:02 mark of the second half. Four and a half minutes later, the Volunteers were still on six fouls.

They would stay that way after Auburn’s offensive possession out of the timeout. Tahaad Pettiford ran a high pick-and-roll with Keyshawn Hall, who caught the ball off of Tennessee’s blitz and drove downhill.

The man who has shot more free throws than anyone else in the SEC jump-stopped, got Okpara in the air and tried to finish through contact. The ball didn’t go down, and the whistle didn’t come. Tennessee made the stop.

On the next possession, after Auburn got a defensive stand, Freeman saw an open court in front of him and tried to attack before Tennessee could get set up defensively.

Freeman drove, Euro-stepped, took more contact and missed the runner — along with a last-ditch tip-in attempt. Tennessee got the long rebound, took advantage of numbers and got a shooting foul call on the other end.

“We were in the bonus with 12 minutes left,” Pearl said. “We went eight-and-a-half minutes without drawing a foul. Part of what we try and do to break up runs is to get to the foul line. I got to go back and watch the tape. Eight-and-a-half minutes against a team that's as physical as Tennessee… that's something.”

By the time Auburn drew a foul again, it was already down by seven. Then Hall missed the front end of a one-and-one, which turned into a dunk from Tennessee on the other end. Pearl then got called for a technical foul that wrapped up a 20-0 run.

The damage was done at this point. Auburn had melted down on both ends of the floor, showing one of its worst attributes in what has been a challenging season: Letting problems on one end of the floor bleed into issues on the other side in what would turn into a 72-62 loss.

“Just us letting our defense take over our offense,” Pettiford said. “Not being able to get stops during the run affected our offense coming down and just being careless with the ball — careless turnovers, missing shots that sometimes you might knock down. We let our defense affect the offense in the second half.”

For the first 30 minutes Thursday, Auburn looked like a team that was going to get the high-quality win away from home that it had been missing for a while. The Tigers were truly fighting for their NCAA Tournament lives and taking it to the favorites.

But, as the misses and no-calls piled up on offense, an Auburn defense that had been surprisingly lights out early got worn down. Tennessee made the right adjustments and took full advantage of the opportunities to turn Auburn’s bad offense into buckets.

“They started getting hot, started picking us apart on the offensive end and went on a run,” center KeShawn Murphy said. “We couldn't seem to put together something to stop them.”

Auburn’s chance to beat Tennessee and try to get back into the NCAA Tournament field off of a historically weak bubble was — in and of itself — a challenge to respond to adversity. The Tigers put themselves in this spot with all their recent losses, including ones when they were favorites and not underdogs like they were Thursday.

But, in crunch time, the way Tennessee play got to Auburn both physically and mentally. Auburn blew another sizable lead in another frustrating loss, and this one could be the one that puts an end to any meaningful basketball for this team.

Now all the Tigers can do is wait. They will wait to see if they will be the first team to lose 16 games in a season and still make the NCAA Tournament. They will wait to see if the selection committee gives them enough forgiveness against a brutal bubble.

The NIT hasn’t even been discussed by this program, per Pearl. That’s because Auburn still believes it should make the Dance, even with the nine losses in its final 12.

“I'm going to break down this film and just get to work, start prepping for the next game,” Pearl said. “That's really all we can do as coaches. We just got to continue to pour into these kids because, man, we've put 'em through a lot this year. This team has dealt with a ton of adversity. … None of the teams in the bubble, if they play our schedule, I really don't think they're going to have performed as well as we did this year. I just don't.

“I'm just going to fight for my guys on that. I'll stand on that.”

We’ll find out in less than 72 hours if Auburn made the cut, if it still has more basketball to play — or if it’s going to get a head start on an increasingly critical first full offseason under Pearl.

For now, this will just be yet another gettable game that stings.

Here are three big Observations from Auburn’s 72-62 loss to Tennessee in the second round of the SEC Tournament, along with the Rotation Charts and Nerd Stats.

(Zach Bland/Auburn Tigers)

Why Auburn’s defense couldn’t keep it up down the stretch