AUBURN, Ala. – The Auburn men’s basketball team had an ugly performance for 25 minutes of game clock and an embarrassing incident involving a fan Saturday.
The final result was prettier for the 13th-ranked Tigers, who rallied from a 17-point deficit in the second half to beat Tennessee 73-66 behind Samir Doughty’s 22 points.
Senior guard Jordan Bowden scored a career-high 28 points – he was 3-for-4 from 3-point range – and had six assists for the Volunteers, who have not won back-to-back games since beating Vanderbilt on Jan. 18 and Ole Miss on Jan. 21. Tennessee is 3-6 since then, and three of its final four regular-season games are against opponents in the top third of the Southeastern Conference standings.
That includes the finale, a March 7 visit from Auburn (23-4, 10-4), which has won its past four meetings with the Vols (15-12, 7-7) to match its longest winning streak in an all-time series in which it trails 77-39.
“We’ll celebrate this one,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “Having lost two in a row (at Missouri and at Georgia), I kind of felt like our backs were against the wall.”
The comeback wasn’t the only hot topic after the game. A student was ejected from the arena after directing a derogatory comment toward Tennessee freshman guard Santiago Vescovi and will face a disciplinary hearing, an Auburn official said. The fan was heard on TV calling out, “Go back to Uruguay! This is America!”
Pearl, a former Tennessee coach, said he appreciated the way Auburn administrators handled it and stressed that “one person doesn’t speak at all for the Auburn family.”
“That’s not who we are at all,” Pearl said. “This is an amazing campus with incredible students. We are diverse and we are welcoming. I’ve got nothing but respect for Santiago and his game.”
AP photo by Julie Bennett / Tennessee forward Olivier Nkamhoua talks with coach Rick Barnes during the first half of Saturday’s game in Auburn, Ala.
Tennessee coach Rick Barnes didn’t know about the incident when asked about it at his postgame news conference, with a media relations official cutting off a reporter’s question. Barnes addressed it after being told of the situation in the team’s locker room.
“From what I’ve heard, once they found out about it, they took care of it,” Barnes said. “I’m glad they did. I haven’t given any thought to it, but our administration told me that Auburn did what needed to be done. And that’s good by me.”
Auburn had won seven straight – including three times in overtime and once in double OT – before its two-game skid that ended Saturday. Led by Doughty’s hot streak, the Tigers scored 18 consecutive points to spark the comeback against the Vols.
Vescovi, who was not made available to reporters, scored 10 points. Yves Pons led Tennessee in rebounds with 10 as the Vols finished with a 37-28 advantage on the glass.
The visitors rode a 13-2 run capped by Bowden’s jumper to a 54-37 lead with 14:31 left. Auburn scored the next 18 points, including 10 by Doughty, to go ahead 55-54.
Devan Cambridge’s 3-pointer with 1:38 left gave Auburn a 67-64 lead, and the teams traded baskets after that before the Tigers forced a turnover. J’Von McCormick and Doughty each hit two free throws in the final 23 seconds, and Auburn scored the game’s final six points.
Doughty scored 14 points in the second half, and no other Auburn player reached double digits for the game. It was the Tigers’ third straight game without star freshman Isaac Okoro (pulled right hamstring), and they lost the first two by double digits on the road.
AP photo by Julie Bennett / Auburn’s Samir Doughty, center, and J’Von McCormick trap Tennessee senior guard Jordan Bowden, right, during the second half of Saturday’s game in Auburn, Ala. Bowden scored 28 points, his most as a Vol, including 17 during a first half in which he was perfect from the field and at the foul line.Bowden had 17 points during a first half in which he was perfect from the field and on free throws. He was 7-of-35 from 3-point range (20%) over the Vols’ past seven games before getting going against the Tigers.
Tennessee, which flirted with its third win over a ranked opponent this season, committed 24 turnovers, including six during Auburn’s big run. Taking care of the basketball has become a recurring problem for the Vols.
“It’s like the same old record playing,” Barnes said. “Some of them were just ridiculous turnovers where you watch your team and it’s like, ‘What are they not seeing out there?'”
Auburn had 18 steals as it pushed its home winning streak to 18 games by winning the rematch of last season’s SEC tournament title game. The Tigers won 84-64 last March in Nashville to set up an NCAA tournament title run capped by the program’s first Final Four appearance.
This time Pearl had a fiery halftime message to his players, though Doughty declined to divulge the particulars.
“I can’t share anything he said,” the senior guard said. “He got on us and we reacted, but I can’t really share what he said. But it got us motivated.
“He kicked everybody out of the locker room but the players. When it gets like that, we know how serious he is.”
Tennessee’s next game is 8:30 p.m. EST Wednesday at Arkansas (17-10, 5-9), which lost 82-61 to the Vols on Feb. 11 in Knoxville. The Vols host Florida next Saturday and visit Kentucky on March 3 before the finale against Auburn.