Saturday’s meeting between No. 1 Auburn and No. 6 Tennessee was a physical battle from start to finish with the Tigers prevailing, 53-51.
Tennessee had the ball with a chance to win or force overtime when senior guard Zakai Zeigler missed this corner three. Both teams battled for the loose ball before Auburn dribbled out the rest of the clock to seal the top 10 victory at home.
Both teams struggled to shoot the ball all night, as the final score would indicate. The teams only made seven threes combined.
Not surprisingly, Auburn’s leading scorer for the season, Johni Broome, led the team with 16 points and 13 rebounds, albeit off the bench. Broome had missed Auburn’s last two games after suffering a left ankle injury against South Carolina on Jan. 11.
Zeigler led the Volunteers with 14 points (4-of-15 FG). Before Saturday, Tennessee (17-3, 4-3 SEC) had gone through spurts where the offense was not clicking, including the 73-43 loss to then-No. 8 Florida on Jan. 7. Finding some more consistency on offense is going to be crucial with No. 9 Kentucky up next on Tuesday.
Auburn (18-1, 6-0 SEC) remains perfect in conference play and extends its winning streak to 11 games ahead of a road trip to LSU on Wednesday. The win was sloppy, but it proved that Auburn can win when the shots are not falling.
