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.
The only two games that day at Bon Secours Wellness Arena have 13th-seeded Auburn taking on No. 12 Vanderbilt and No. 14 Ole Miss facing No. 11 Missouri, with the winner of that one meeting Tennessee at 2:30 p.m. Thursday.
The Lady Vols led 54-51 at Auburn (10-17, 4-12) after a tiebreaking basket inside by Kasiyahna Kushkituah with 2:21 to play and a free throw by Jordan Horston with 13 seconds remaining. But on the ensuing possession, Horston fouled Daisa Alexander on a 3-point attempt and she hit all three free throws.
With 3.7 seconds remaining, Horston caught the inbound pass, crossed over a defender and hit a runner in the lane to put Tennessee back up, but with 0.6 seconds to play, Tennessee's Rennia Davis was called for a foul away from the ball.
Alexander went back to the line and hit the first free throw but missed the second, and the Lady Vols escaped.
"I felt like if we could walk out of here with a win, I didn't care what it looked like, I didn't care how we got it. If we could walk out of here with a win, that would be accomplishing something," Harper said in her postgame interview on the Lady Vol Network. "I felt it was going to be tough for us. The way they play, I felt it could affect us some. Their guards had been shooting the ball well and they have a terrific post player (Unique Thompson), so I'll take it."
Davis again carried Tennessee, tallying 22 points, 10 rebounds and three assists in 37 minutes. Lou Brown hit a trio of 3-pointers for all of her points, and Horston had six points but also six turnovers. Sophomore Jazmine Massengill from Chattanooga and Hamilton Heights Christian Academy had five each in points, rebounds and assists.
Auburn, which shot just 29% from the field, was led by Alexander's 15 points. She and Robyn Benton had eight of the 15 steals by the Tigers.
SUNDAY'S STAR
Davis seems to have a standing reservation in this spot, but the Lady Vols would not have won without the 6-foot-2 junior's production. Only three Lady Vols played more than 18 minutes: Davis and Massengill each played 37 and Brown played 32. No other Lady Vol was asked to do as much from a playmaking or a production standpoint as Davis. That's been the case on a night-in, night-out basis this season, and Davis has answered the call time and time again.
STANDOUT STAT
Tennessee improved to 2-5 this season when turning the ball over at least 20 times. The Lady Vols had 28 turnovers in the other win, 74-63 at Notre Dame on Nov. 11, but much like in that game, they also pounded the boards in this one, finishing with a 50-26 rebounding edge.
TURNING POINT
In a game with three moments in which the Lady Vols appeared to be on the brink of victory, it wasn't until Alexander's final free throw fell off the rim with 0.6 second to play that Tennessee could feel comfortable.
WHAT IT MEANS
The Lady Vols will likely receive an NCAA tourney berth. They've beaten the teams they're supposed to beat and fallen short against teams that were favored against them. As long as they defeat either Missouri or Ole Miss - teams they've already topped this season - they'll remain the only program in the country to participate in every NCAA women's basketball tournament since its inception.
QUOTABLE
Davis on Horston's winning shot: "Jordan came up big for us. She was clutch."
Davis on the regular season: "I wanted to win the regular season, but I feel everything happens for a reason. I think, just looking at the brackets and the standings, everything worked out well for us."
Harper on the Lady Vols' performance at Auburn: "This game took a tremendous defensive effort to win. We did a heck of a job on the boards and we guarded. We made things really hard for Unique Thompson, she is really good, one of the best post players in the league, and Tamari Key and Kasi (Kushkituah) did a heck of a job on her and didn't give her anything easy."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @genehenley3 or at Facebook.com/VolsUpdate.