ATLANTA — It took until midway through the second half for Auburn, the NCAA Tournament’s top overall seed, to grab control of its South Region semifinal on Friday. But once the Tigers did, they were untouchable.
Trailing No. 5 Michigan by nine with just over 12 minutes left, Auburn — backed by Johni Broome, Denver Jones and sizzling freshman Tahaad Pettiford — ran away from the Wolverines with a 28-6 run en route to a 78-65 victory.
Auburn sealed a meeting with No. 2 Michigan State on Sunday for the right to advance to the Final Four.
Broome, a first-team All-American, recorded game highs of 22 points and 16 rebounds. Jones and Pettiford added 20 points apiece for the Tigers (31-5), who advanced to the program’s third Elite Eight — and first since 2019.
After a slugfest of a first 20-plus minutes, Auburn returned to form, and then some, as coach Bruce Pearl watched his team ease into the second half.
“The deal was we turned the ball over a little bit. We made some mistakes,” Pearl said. “I let them kind of jaw at each other a little bit and then go, ‘Hey, man, we’re good. We’re in a great spot. You guys are just pushing each other. I love the energy. I love the pace. Just slow down a little bit with the ball. We’re just rushing.'”
Pettiford, who came off the bench for the 35th time in 36 games, contributed like a player much older than 19.
“He does whatever it takes to win. We need a spark, he gives the spark,” Broome said of Pettiford. “There’s not too many freshmen who can take over a game like he can. You saw in today’s game he had a spurt where he just took over.”.
Trailing 30-29 at halftime, Michigan opened the second half on a 13-6 run, capped by Roddy Gayle Jr.’s three-point play to build a 42-36 edge with 14:36 left.
Broome cut Auburn’s deficit in half with a three-point play of his own, before Danny Wolf’s consecutive layups and Will Tschetter’s two free throws extended the Wolverines’ lead to 48-39 with 12:26 to play.
From there, Pettiford and Denver Jones each buried a 3-pointer, beginning a 12-0 Auburn run to grab a 51-48 lead at the 9:19 mark.
Rubin Jones answered with a much-needed layup for Michigan, but Denver Jones continued to find the range, knocking in two more 3-pointers and a layup to push Auburn’s cushion to 59-50.
The prolonged run was extended to 28-6 after Pettiford’s triple and three-point play gave the Tigers a 67-54 edge, igniting the Auburn-heavy State Farm Arena crowd. Chaney Johnson’s dunk punctuated Auburn’s 31st win — setting a program record.
“It all stems back to the grind in the sense that this team, to this point, has only lost one game to a team that wasn’t in the Sweet 16,” Pearl said. “That means they respected their opponents. They didn’t fear any of them, and they got ready to play every single night. Giving us the No. 1 overall, which then put us in Atlanta — the overall No. 1 seed should be able to play close enough to home for your fans to see it. So they got rewarded.”
Wolf scored 20 points to lead Michigan (27-10). Vladislav Goldin chipped in 10 points and nine rebounds and Nimari Burnett also had 10 points, paired with seven boards.
First-year head coach Dusty May took over a Michigan team that lost 24 games last year and guided it to the Sweet 16, seemingly putting the Wolverines back on the map after two years of irrelevance.
“Just for these guys to want to be better every single day, to be open to change, to love each other, to get off the mat when you get knocked down, just proud of the group,” May said. “When I think back to the first Michigan team I was a part of, these guys, they left a legacy. They’ve helped us establish an identity, and they should be very, very proud of their body of work.”
–Jack Batten, Field Level Media
