Regardless of how bad the visiting team looked at times during the Southeastern Conference women’s basketball game played Sunday afternoon in Auburn, Alabama, the final score read: Tennessee 56, Auburn 55.
And for Kellie Harper, that was good enough.
The mistake-prone Lady Volunteers turned the ball over 24 times, usually by forcing passes into spots where they shouldn’t have. They inexplicably fouled twice in the final four seconds, putting the Tigers at the line for potential game-tying free throws.
But the Lady Vols won.
With the narrow victory at Auburn Arena, they improved to 20-9 in former Lady Vols point guard Harper’s first season as coach. They also finished the regular season 10-6 in SEC play to share third place in the standings, but tiebreakers made them the No. 6 seed for the league tournament that starts Wednesday in Greenville, South Carolina.