No. 8 Tennessee pull away, hold off No. 1 Auburn in SEC semis

Zakai Zeigler scored 20 points, Jordan Gainey had 15 and No. 8 Tennessee held off No. 3 Auburn 70-65 in the first semifinal game of the SEC tournament Saturday afternoon in Nashville.Chaz Lanier added 12 points for the fourth-seeded Volunteers (27-6), who will play either No. 4-ranked Florida or No. 5 Alabama in the championship game Sunday afternoon.Johni Broome had 23 points for the top-seeded Tigers (28-5), Miles Kelly contributed 13 and Denver Jones scored 10.The lead changed hands four times at the outset of the second half before Jones made two free throws and Broome added a basket from the lane to give Auburn a 41-36 lead. Gainey then accounted for seven points during a 9-2 spurt to give Tennessee a 45-43 lead.The Tigers and Volunteers went back and forth from there, with the lead changing another four times before Lanier’s jumper completed an 8-0 run that gave the Volunteers a 55-48 advantage.Dylan Cardwell made a free throw to stop the run, but Tennessee expanded the lead to 62-50 as Auburn went more than five minutes without making a field goal.The Tigers, though, scored 10 straight to get within two points with just over four minutes remaining before Cade Phillips’ basket ended Tennessee’s field-goal drought of nearly four minutes.

Playlist

Headlines