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Tennessee, Zakai Zeigler hold off Auburn to reach SEC Tournament title game
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Tennessee looked like it would pull away from the top seed in the SEC Tournament as the second half wound down, but the regular-season champs had other plans. Thanks to a 10-0 run in the span of 98 seconds, Auburn came storming back to tighten things up in the final 4 minutes of Saturday’s semifinal game in Nashville.
In the end, the 3-seed Volunteers held on for a 70-65 win over 1-seed Auburn. Tennessee will play either Florida or Alabama in the SEC Tournament championship game on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Tennessee senior guard Zakai Zeigler was the hero. At times in the second half, he was undeniable.
When these 2 sides met back in January, Zeigler had 14 points on 15 shot attempts, missing a would-be game-winner in the final seconds of a 53-51 loss. In the rematch on Saturday, Zeigler made 5 of his 11 shots for a team-high 20 points. He added 5 boards and 4 assists, and he made all 9 of his free throws.
With 11:49 to play in the game, Tennessee trailed by 1. Tennessee then ripped off a 13-1 run over the next 4 minutes and change.
That run was punctuated by a straightaway triple from Zeigler, who danced a bigger defender to sleep and then buried a staggering shot in his face.
On the wrong end of an 11-point deficit with 7:17 to play, Auburn looked like it was teetering.
But the champs had a response. At the 5:48 mark, Auburn hit back with a 10-0 run over the span of 1:38 to get the game back to one possession. Tennessee turned it over on 3 straight possessions — a 5-second violation, a bobbled pass out of bounds, and then a miscommunication on a screen pop/roll between Igor Milicic and Zeigler — as the momentum shifted entirely to Auburn’s bench.
Tennessee’s togetherness was on full display from then on out. The mettle was tested and shined through. Auburn missed 6 of its final 7 shots. Tennessee got big buckets from Cade Phillips and Jordan Gainey in the closing minutes to keep Auburn at arm’s length. And 2 crucial missed free throws from Johni Broome with 29 seconds to go helped.
Broome’s trip to the free throw line was controversial, to say the least. However, it wasn’t a “ball don’t lie” situation so much as it was a game-long problem.
Auburn’s leader had 23 points on 9-of-13 shooting. But he missed 7 of his 12 free throw attempts. As a team, Auburn shot just 13 of 22 from the charity stripe.
Tennessee made 25 of its 27 shots from the foul line. Gainey went 8-for-8 as he scored 15 points. Jahmai Mashack took only 1 shot from the field but made 6 of his 8 free throws. Tennessee only made 26% of its triples — Chaz Lanier had 12 points on 2-of-6 shooting from deep — and it didn’t really matter. Zeigler hit a huge one at a crucial juncture, Tennessee defended the 3-point line on the other end, and it had a massive edge on the foul line.
That was enough.
Tennessee will go back to the SEC Tournament title game, which it won in 2022. The Vols (27-6) will be looking for their sixth tournament title in program history.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
