LEXINGTON, Ky. — Auburn men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl said a trip to the second weekend of the NCAA tournament was no sure thing for his Tigers, whose dominant winter helped them win the Southeastern Conference’s regular-season title outright and with a week to spare.
An experienced Creighton team made Pearl’s top-seeded crew work for it before the Tigers found their defensive mojo in the second half and closed out the ninth-seeded Bluejays 82-70 on Saturday night to reach the Sweet 16.
Tahaad Pettiford scored 16 of his 23 points after halftime and Chad Baker-Mazara added 17 points for Auburn, which held Creighton scoreless for more than six minutes during a 10-0 second-half run. Pettiford scored six points during that burst to push the Tigers to a 68-54 lead in the second-round matchup at the University of Kentucky’s Rupp Arena.
“We knew the shots that we were going to get,” said Pettiford, who was 7-for-14 from the field and 7-of-8 from the foul line. “My guys helped me get the ball, get me open and helped me find the shots that I wanted to get.”
This year’s No. 1 overall seed in the 68-team bracket, Auburn (30-5) entered the Big Dance having lost three of its past four games (including an SEC semifinal loss) but moves on to next week’s South Region semifinals in Atlanta. The Tigers’ Sweet 16 opponent there will be fifth-seeded Michigan (27-9), the Big Ten champion, with the Wolverines advancing by surviving No. 12 seed UC San Diego, 68-65 in the first round, before taking down fourth-seeded Texas A&M — an SEC program — 91-79 on Saturday.