Auburn forward Anfernee McLemore (24) leaps out to defend against a shot by Tennessee guard Admiral Schofield during the second half of their teams' regular-season finale Saturday in Auburn, Ala
Auburn guard Samir Doughty (10) stretches to contest a shot by Tennessee guard Lamonte Turner during the second half of their teams' SEC regular-season finale Saturday in Auburn, Ala.KNOXVILLE - Auburn and Tennessee both traded 2-pointers for 3-pointers in their Southeastern Conference regular-season finale Saturday at Auburn Arena.
In Auburn's case, it was part of the game plan.
For Tennessee, it was a fateful deviation from it.
A number of small mistakes by the fifth-ranked Volunteers led to an 84-80 loss that left them 27-4 overall, 15-3 against league competition and out of first place in the SEC standings.
The Vols had entered the day tied with LSU on top, but their loss, combined with LSU beating Vanderbilt and Kentucky beating Florida, left them with the No. 3 seed for the conference tournament, which begins Wednesday in Nashville.
The Vols have a double-bye into Friday's quarterfinals and are scheduled to play at 9:30 EDT. They'll face either Mississippi State, Texas A&M or Vanderbilt.
On Saturday, Auburn (22-9, 11-7) took 34 shots from 3-point range, making 13, and their last two were the topic of a lot of postgame conversation. Jared Harper's make from the right wing with 2:46 remaining appears from some camera angles to be tipped in by an Auburn player. A tip-in would have put the Tigers up 74-69, but officials ruled the basket a made 3-pointer for a six-point advantage.
Auburn's final made 3 came after Harper drove the lane and had his shot blocked by Grant Williams. The ball went straight to Samir Doughty at the 3-point line, and Doughty nailed his shot to put the Tigers up 78-72 with 1:13 to play.
Auburn's game plan was of little surprise. The Tigers have attempted at least 30 3-pointers on 17 occasions this season and have made at least 10 in a game 19 times. Chasing 3-point attempts is their game, and with four shooters around the perimeter, the Tigers had the Vols chasing and trying to contest shots by open shooters for most of the game.
It's not Tennessee's game, though. The Vols try to be surgical in their approach, with midrange shooting and interior attacking, but at Auburn they played a game that fell right into the Tigers' hands. The Vols shot 28 3-pointers Saturday, which is tied for their second-most in a game this season. They took only 61 shots total, making the 45.9 percent they took from 3-point range their second-highest this year.
The Vols also turned the ball over 13 times, bad not so much as a number alone but because they led to 19 Auburn points. Two of those turnovers were shot-clock violations.
"Turnovers. We gave them three baskets in the first half that just didn't make sense, where we lost someone in transition, just let them go through our entire defense," Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said. "Turnovers, that obviously hurts. You have to give them credit for that. From our point of view, we had some unforced turnovers that we just didn't protect the ball the way we needed to. The fact is, we didn't guard the ball well enough whether it was on the perimeter or inside. Need to do a better job of that.
"Again, when you look at 19 points off 13 turnovers, normally we don't do that. You have to give them some credit for that. Shot-clock violations, we have no one to blame but ourselves. That's on our guards, should be locked in. We normally have three guards on the floor. They have to see that."
Tennessee's offensive attack as a whole didn't make sense, considering the success the Vols were having getting the ball in the lane. They scored 28 points in the paint and shot 61 percent on attempts inside 3-point range, but they didn't look for those shots consistently.
In Tennessee's lone game with a higher percentage of 3-point tries among its field-goal attempts - they took 24 among 52 at Memphis on Dec. 15 - the Vols shot 46 free throws, making 39 in a 102-92 win. So they weren't simply settling for the 3.
Against Auburn, it's hard to think they weren't.
"I think we had 20-plus 3s," Williams told reporters afterward. "I don't think they had an answer for our inside presence or even driving the ball. In the beginning on the first half, our guards got downhill and our guards were able to get layups and drives. It wasn't just me getting post-ups. It was the entire team.
"Soon, we started settling for jumpers and it took us out of our offense."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.