Zakai Zeigler scored 20 points, Jordan Gainey had 15 and No. 8 Tennessee held off No. 3 Auburn 70-65 in the first semifinal game of the SEC tournament Saturday afternoon in Nashville.
Chaz Lanier added 12 points for the fourth-seeded Volunteers (27-6), who will play No. 4-ranked Florida in the championship game Sunday afternoon.
Johni Broome had 23 points for the top-seeded Tigers (28-5), Miles Kelly contributed 13 and Denver Jones scored 10.
The lead changed hands four times at the outset of the second half before Jones made two free throws and Broome added a basket from the lane to give Auburn a 41-36 lead. Gainey then accounted for seven points during a 9-2 spurt to give Tennessee a 45-43 lead.
The Tigers and Volunteers went back and forth from there, with the lead changing another four times before Lanier’s jumper completed an 8-0 run that gave the Volunteers a 55-48 advantage.
Dylan Cardwell made a free throw to stop the run, but Tennessee expanded the lead to 62-50 as Auburn went more than five minutes without making a field goal.
The Tigers, though, scored 10 straight to get within two points with just over four minutes remaining before Cade Phillips’ basket ended Tennessee’s field-goal drought of nearly four minutes.
The Tigers got within three twice, but Chad Baker-Mazara missed a 3-pointer with 14 seconds left. The Volunteers’ Jahmai Mashack made two free throws to seal the upset.
The score was tied twice and the lead changed hands five times early on before Igor Milicic Jr. made a layup to give Tennessee a 13-10 lead. Auburn got within one point on three occasions before Zeigler made a layup and Lanier hit a jumper for a 22-17 lead.
Zeigler’s layup pushed the lead to seven before Broome scored six points during a 10-0 run that gave the Tigers a 29-26 lead. Darlinstone Dubar’s layup ended a 5½-minute scoring drought for the Volunteers and Milicic’s jumper gave them a one-point lead.
That was the first of four lead changes down the stretch, the last of which came when Jones made two free throws to give Auburn a 33-32 halftime lead.
–Field Level Media
