AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn Tigers saved their best for last, and so did Jared Harper.
Harper made four straight free throws in the final 31 seconds and two late 3-pointers to help the Tigers wrap up an 84-80 victory over fifth-ranked Tennessee on Saturday, the final day of the regular season for Southeastern Conference men’s basketball teams.
The Tigers (22-9, 11-7) earned their fourth straight win and biggest of the season in a packed Auburn Arena on senior day. It was Auburn’s first win over a team ranked in the top five nationally since beating Arkansas in 1995.
“Everybody in the country recognizes that Tennessee is a Final Four team,” said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl, who led Tennessee for six seasons (2005-11). “Everybody in the country now recognizes that Auburn is capable of beating and, in fact, did beat a Final Four team.”
Tennessee has never been to the Final Four – it made its deepest run when Pearl’s 2009-10 squad reached the Elite Eight – but hopes for unprecedented success in the NCAA tournament this season, which has already included a month-long run at the top spot in the national rankings and a program-record 19-game winning streak.
The Volunteers (27-4, 15-3) started the day atop the SEC standings alongside No. 10 LSU, which closed out the league’s regular-season title with an 80-59 win against Vanderbilt late Saturday night. LSU (26-5, 16-2) would have been the No. 1 seed for next week’s SEC tournament in Nashville either way by virtue of the head-to-head tiebreaker, having beaten Tennessee 82-80 in overtime and Kentucky 73-71 last month.
Vanderbilt (9-22) completed the first 0-18 season in SEC men’s basketball history.
Kentucky (26-5, 15-3) which closed the regular season with a 66-57 win against Florida, also would have shared the regular-season championship with LSU and Tennessee had the Commodores pulled off what would have been a stunning upset.
Tennessee split its season series with Kentucky but fell to the No. 3 seed because of other tiebreakers.
The Vols, who shared the 2017-18 regular-season title with Auburn – with the Tigers getting the top seed for the SEC tournament – have never won back-to-back league crowns.
“A year ago, you think about it, we win the league with five losses,” Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. “This year we only have three. You have to learn from this. Some of the mistakes we made today, we can’t make. Not at this time of year.”
Auburn, which spent six weeks ranked in the top 10 before falling from the rankings this season, relished the spoiler role this time. The Tigers will be the No. 5 SEC seed and receive a first-round bye in the league tournament.
The Tigers were fighting for the No. 4 seed and a double bye into the quarterfinals at the league tournament but needed South Carolina to lose to Georgia to have that happen. South Carolina beat Georgia 66-46 to grab the fourth seed.
In the final minute of Saturday’s game at Auburn, the Tigers’ Samir Doughty grabbed the ball after Tennessee forward Grant Williams’ shot was blocked and made a 3-pointer to beat the shot clock. Harper hit two free throws with 31 seconds left for an 80-74 cushion, and Jordan Bone’s 3-point attempt at the other end didn’t fall.
Williams got the rebound and drew a flagrant 1 foul from Anfernee McLemore. Williams made two free throws with 23 seconds left, and the Vols got another possession.
Williams launched a quick basket off the inbounds play, but Harper hit two more free throws with 20 seconds left for an 82-78 lead. Bone then missed a 3-point try and teammate Jordan Bowden couldn’t control the rebound, which went out of bounds.
Doughty hit two more foul shots for the Tigers, who celebrated moments later, with Bryce Brown climbing on the press row table in front of the student section after his final home game.
“That’s something I just planned to do,” said Brown, who finished with 16 points, including four 3-pointers. “I just wanted to share the moment with the fans. I wanted to share the moments with my parents. My auntie and my mom were up there, that’s who I went to.”
Chuma Okeke led Auburn with 22 points, one shy of his collegiate high. Harper had 16 points and eight assists, with his two 3-pointers coming back to back in the final minutes.
For the Vols, Williams finished with 25 points and nine rebounds, Bone scored 17 points with seven assists, Bowden added 16 with six rebounds and Admiral Schofield scored 13 points before fouling out. Tennessee outrebounded Auburn 39-27, with Alexander matching Williams for the team lead in that category.
“We won the game; Tennessee didn’t lose it,” said Pearl, whose team is 2-5 against ranked opponents this season. “We won the basketball game because of the quality of our play.”