NASHVILLE -- It's taken Bruce Pearl only one season at Auburn to do something he never accomplished in six seasons at Tennessee -- win at least three games in a single SEC basketball tournament.
Thanks to Auburn's KT Harrell swishing a 3-pointer off the top of the key at the end of regulation against LSU, Pearl's Tigers won their third game in three days when they knocked off the Bayou Bengals 73-70 in overtime Friday.
They face unbeaten Kentucky at 1 p.m. EDT in a tourney semifinal today.
"It's just reminiscent of my days at Tennessee," said Pearl, whose team improved to 15-19 as LSU dropped to 22-10. "All things were equal out there except we had No. 5 and you didn't. And that was Chris Lofton.
"In this tournament, all things are equal out there except we've got No. 1, KT Harrell, and you don't. It's been somebody different on some nights, but it's been KT every night."
It was certainly Harrell's night (or late afternoon) against LSU. The SEC's scoring leader with 18.7 points a game finished with a game-high 29 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals.
"My teammates just believed in me," Harrell said of his 3-pointer just before overtime. "I knew Coach was going to draw up a play for me to get the 3-ball. I really didn't think about them fouling. That probably would have been a smarter move."
LSU fans will no doubt debate coach Johnny Jones's decision not to foul rather than risk a 3 for some time.
"Yes, hindsight, it's not good for us right now," Jones said. "We possibly could have fouled before they got the shot off."
But they didn't foul. Harrell hit the 3, and once in overtime Pearl's Tigers took control, leading by as many as seven points before LSU's Keith Hornsby missed two 3-pointers in the final 12 seconds. Hornsby did finish with 24 points, however.
Of course, if the Bayou Bengals hadn't twice fouled Harrell on 3-pointers inside the final two minutes after leading by eight (61-53) with 2:45 to go, Pearl's late grease board magic might not have mattered. But given a chance to score with no time going off the clock, Harrell bagged five of his six free throws, threw in another 3-pointer for good measure and wound up scoring 11 points down the stretch.
Throw in the 19 free throws that LSU missed over the course of the game and it's easy to see that the Bayou Bengals may have had almost as much to do with Auburn winning as Harrell did.
But only almost.
"We're just trying to get Auburn relevant," Pearl said. "The way our kids play hard, the way they don't quit and the way they believe in each other, they're making some history."
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.