When K.D. Johnson made a pair of free throws with 12:17 remaining to extend Auburn's lead to 63-55 on Wednesday night, things did not look promising for Tennessee inside the Food City Center.
It was time for Dalton Knecht's premier performance of his phenomenal season.
Knecht matched his season high with 39 points in leading the No. 4 Volunteers to a thrilling 92-84 comeback triumph over the No. 11 Tigers before an emotionally spent crowd of 22,547. The fifth-year senior guard and Northern Colorado transfer tallied 25 of his points after Tennessee had fallen behind by eight, actually outscoring the Tigers by himself 25-21 in the final 12 minutes.
"Dalton did a pretty good job, didn't he?" Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said on the Vol Network. "I felt like a jockey on a horse. I'm holding the reins, and I'm like, 'Go ahead.' He got going, and when he gets going like that, he's proven he can do it.
"He got going. What else can I say? He delivered."
Tennessee improved to 22-6 overall and to 12-3 in Southeastern Conference play, while Auburn fell to 21-7 and 10-5. Wednesday marked the 12th triumph in a row for the Vols at home against a foe ranked in the Associated Press Top 25.
"This was a terrific win," Barnes said. "It was a high-level game. If both teams play like that, both teams have a chance to have a pretty good postseason. Nothing easy came on either end, and there were some big-time shots being made out there by both teams."
Knecht, who shot 12-of-21 from the floor and 5-of-8 from the 3-point line, connected from long range to halt Auburn's momentum and then had a dunk to pull the Vols within 63-60. Another 3-pointer produced a 66-66 deadlock, and his jumper with 8:38 to play put Tennessee ahead to stay at 71-69.
"It just felt like whatever I was throwing up was going in," Knecht said on ESPN2. "My teammates just kept feeding me the ball and telling me to keep going at it and keep showing the world what I can do."
Zakai Zeigler scored 17 points and dished out nine assists for the Vols, while Jonas Aidoo tallied 14 points and seven rebounds before fouling out in the final minute. Tennessee shot 50.9% from the floor and 52.9% from 3-point range and outrebounded the Tigers 37-30.
Auburn lost despite having five scorers in double figures, with Johni Broome tallying 23 points, Chad Baker-Mazara 13, Jaylin Williams 12, Denver Jones 11 and Johnson 10.
"When you score 84 points on the road playing for a championship, that should be enough to win," Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said in a news conference. "Our defense definitely let us down. Obviously Dalton was terrific."
Three Aidoo baskets in the first five minutes helped Tennessee race to a 12-6 lead. Tobe Awaka's dunk at the 3:46 mark had the Vols up 34-28, but Auburn countered with a 7-0 run and forged ahead 35-34 on a pair of Jones free throws.
Tennessee took a 44-40 lead into halftime thanks to a Zeigler 3-pointer with six seconds left. The Tigers had 10 turnovers and the Vols nine in the first half, with Zeigler committing four of those.
"Zakai was trying to do too much in the first half," Barnes said. "I think he was maybe a little too amped up."
Another Zeigler 3-pointer and two Knecht free throws in the first minute of the second half staked Tennessee to its largest lead at 49-40, but the Tigers responded with a 19-5 run that featured three consecutive layups by Broome and a three-point play by Williams that put Auburn up 59-54.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.