By Teresa M. Walker, Associated Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Auburn Tigers are stringing together some impressive accomplishments with coach Bruce Pearl. Now they have a chance at something particularly special before the NCAA Tournament.
Jared Harper hit a 3-pointer with 12 seconds left as No. 22 Auburn held off Florida 65-62 Saturday to reach the Southeastern Conference Tournament championship for the first time since 2000.
Auburn (25-9) came in as the fifth-seeded team after sharing the SEC regular-season title a year ago, and now the Tigers will play No. 8 Tennessee, an 82-78 winner over No. 4 Kentucky, on Sunday, looking for their second tournament championship and first since 1985. The title game also will give them a chance to burnish their NCAA Tournament seeding.
“There’s a difference between having a Top 25 team and having a Top 25 program,” Pearl said. “The more we win, the more we have both.”
Florida (19-15) may have needed one more upset after knocking off regular-season champ LSU in the quarterfinals to earn their at-large NCAA berth.
“We’re just trying to stay hopeful,” Gators senior Kevarrius Hayes said. “It’s up to the selection committee and what they decide.”
This game felt much more like a consolation prize and warm-up to the other semifinal, with some of the biggest cheers coming on a reminder that Kentucky-Tennessee was up next.
Auburn and Florida did their best to put on a good show with lots of shooting, and the Gators putting on a clinic in precision to keep pace with the Tigers’ offense. The Gators turned in their best shooting performance of the season (60.5 percent) on their fewest shot attempts of the year (38). Florida also dominated on the boards (32-17).
“It’s really hard to look at that stat sheet and explain an Auburn victory,” Pearl said.
When Hayes dunked with 1:11 left to pull Florida within 61-60, that set up a frantic finish.
Auburn’s fourth and final turnover came with 57 seconds left when Chuma Okeke was too slow getting the ball across midcourt. Keyontae Johnson missed for Florida, and Harper answered with a 3 — his lone made basket of the second half. Jalen Hudson drove for a layup with 7.4 seconds to go, then Harper hit one of two free throws with 6.2 seconds left.
Johnson rebounded the missed free throw, got the ball to Hudson, who passed to Andrew Nembhard, who upset No. 9 LSU in the quarterfinals by hitting a 3 with a second left. Auburn watched the end of that game. That’s why three Tigers surrounded Nembhard, and his shot came up well short and drew no foul call before the buzzer.
Pearl wanted Bryce Brown to foul quickly, and the Auburn senior said it was a mental lapse on his part. Replays show Brown appeared to grab at Nembhard’s left arm, but the guard said he felt he got the ball.
“Whether they fouled me or not, it doesn’t really matter at this point,” Nembhard said.
Pearl said officials didn’t call a foul whether Nembhard was tied up cleanly or had some contact.
“We were fortunate,” Pearl said.
Harper finished with 20 points, 17 of those in the first half. Bryce Brown scored all 11 in the second half.
“I thought Jared Harper was amazing,” Florida coach Mike White said. “I thought that we made a few defensive mistakes, but we were pretty good defensively. They’re that good offensively.”
Hayes and Hudson each had 16 points to lead Florida, which led 34-30 at halftime.
BIG PICTURE
Florida: The Gators head home at least having made up for losing their final three games of the regular season with their 76-73 upset of No. 9 LSU in the quarterfinals. But they missed their first appearance in the tournament final since 2014 and will have to wait for another chance to add to their four tournament titles.
Auburn: The Tigers improved to 4-8 all-time in this tournament’s semifinals, and this is the fourth time they have reached the championship game, following 1984, 1985 and 2000.
KEY TO GAME
Florida also had a season-high 19 turnovers, which Auburn converted into 20 points. White said turnovers are what Auburn is really good at. “It was the turnovers that ultimately cost us,” White said.
UP NEXT
Florida returns home to find out its NCAA fate Sunday. Joe Lunardi has the Gators as an 11 seed starting the day. Auburn faces Tennessee in the SEC Tournament championship game. The Tigers have only won one tournament title in school history.
| No. 22 AUBURN 65, FLORIDA 62 |
|---|
| FLORIDA (19-15) |
K.Johnson 2-5 0-0 5, Hayes 6-8 4-5 16, Allen 3-6 2-2 9, Hudson 5-6 4-5 16, Nembhard 2-5 0-0 4, Bassett 1-2 0-0 2, Locke 3-4 0-0 8, Okauru 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 23-37 10-12 62.
| AUBURN (25-9) |
|---|
McLemore 1-4 0-0 3, Okeke 4-11 0-0 9, Harper 7-11 1-2 20, Brown 4-12 0-0 11, Dunbar 0-4 0-0 0, Spencer 2-5 0-0 4, Purifoy 0-0 0-0 0, Wiley 1-2 0-0 2, Doughty 3-4 0-1 8, McCormick 3-4 1-2 8. Totals 25-57 2-5 65.
Halftime_Florida 34-30. 3-Point Goals_Florida 6-14 (Hudson 2-2, Locke 2-3, K.Johnson 1-3, Allen 1-4, Nembhard 0-2), Auburn 13-30 (Harper 5-7, Brown 3-10, Doughty 2-3, McCormick 1-1, McLemore 1-3, Okeke 1-3, Spencer 0-1, Dunbar 0-2). Fouled Out_None. Rebounds_Florida 30 (Hayes 12), Auburn 15 (Okeke 6). Assists_Florida 11 (Nembhard 5), Auburn 9 (Doughty 4). Total Fouls_Florida 9, Auburn 13.
But for chronic scoring droughts, UF would have 25 wins. Hayes great today.
How huge will that no call on Nembhard be if the Gators don’t get selected tomorrow?
Pretty huge, but they’ll still be selected.
Those boys will be selected tomorrow. How telling is that turnover margin though…
Our turnovers and their 3 pt shooting killed us. Very poor offensive sets with poor shots or no shots in the last 7-8 minutes also hurt us. Good news though is an extra day of rest. Hoping for a good seeing in the tourney.
“Agressively defended”? Come on Pat that was an atrocious no call. 2 of the 3 defenders grabbed Nembhard.
Only the radio guys tell it like it about refs.
Like it is. Have to carefully check every word, or somehow disable this stupid auto-spell.
TV team was all over that. “How is that not a foul” and such. Hope UF is aggressive in getting the official with the no-call disciplined, at the least. Although I suspect Nembhard would have missed one of the 3. Maybe not a bad thing, though — they can go home and get some rest for the dance. Way to represent, Gators!
Too many turnovers was the bottom line on this one. But that no-call was pretty outrageous.
Teams that hit 13 3s seldom lose
There should be fines for referees that don’t call obvious fouls like the one on Nembhard. No matter this team is playing tough and will have a deep run in the NCAA tourney. Go Gators!
If it was football, and Nembhard a QB, he would have been called down for being in the grasp.
Outside on the streets, it’s called “assault with intent to do bodily harm.” Inside, it’s called good defense.
Truly a mugging.
as a 10 seed they would play a 2 seed in the second round if they got that far, as an 8 or 9 seed they would see a 1 seed in the second round, either way, I don’t see a deep run, would have to get past the likes of Duke, NC, Gonzaga, UVA, Michigan St., Michigan, TN or KY to see the sweet 16, just don’t see that happening
Hayes must have hands the size of Mickey Mouse!! He has the worst hands of any big I have ever seen! Terrible hands and that has been for all four years he has been at UF. It’s not his fault we have no inside scoring, that’s on coaching. But, he has to catch the ball inside to give the opportunity to possibly score.
Thought he had a great game today; big blocks, always hustling on D.
Hayes has never had strong hands nor was an inside scorer for us, but this guy’s hustle, defense and block make up for it. We obviously need an inside scoring presence.
Next year with Stokes in playing shape and Gak healthy again, we just might havee it.
Gak has averaged 2.2 points throughout his career. Can play al little defense.
Gak has been on injured reserve so long he’s eligible for social security. But 2 high school All Americans are coming in next season. If, and it’s a big IF, the Gators have a solid 5 player (Gak?) they will be dangerous. White has 3 five-star recruits pledged for the 2020 season and has a top 5 recruiting class–if they sign.
Gak has been limited by bad knees so far in his career at UF. Don’t think he’ll be a great scorer, but you just can’t teach 6′ 11″. Hopefully he can be a rim protector and provide some rebounding, and maybe Payne will provide some offensive. Btw, cattrick, I believe Payne is a 4 star, rather than 5 (assume you’re talking about Mann, Lewis, and Payne), but the good news is all have signed.
Gak has averaged 2.2 points throughout his career. Can play al little defense.
They should get an 11 or 12 seed considering they are No. 30 in the Kenpom rankings.
An 11 or 12 against the right 6 or 5 could be a good matchup for the Gators. Get past that game and you get the 3 or 4 in the second round as opposed to the 1 or 2 if they stuck with an 8, 9, or 10 seed.
Difficult way to end the game, but great effort in all three games. Go Gators!!
I saw that and Lunardi has us at a 10 now but hopefully a 11 or 12 so we wouldn’t have to potentially play a 1 or 2 but first things first of course and win that first game.
We’re playing our best ball of the year which is all a fan can ask for and I think White’s coaching style with the slowdown matches the tourney atmosphere with the increased pressure and the natural slowdown of play and that will benefit us as we are accustomed to it. We could make the Sweet 16 – you never know!!! Go Gators!!!
Down the stretch, excepting the GA debacle, they have been positioning themselves well for a good run.
How can what happened to the Florida shooter at the end of the game not be a foul? I mean, wow. It wasn’t even a full court heave, just a 3-point shot.
Terrible non call. Turnovers killed Gators. Hudson needs a new pair of shoes. How many times has he slipped and fallen the last 5 games. Playing well outside of that. The gators reverted to starting the offense in the last 10 seconds of the clock during a lull in the 2nd half, which hampered them.
Nembhard had a 47% chance of making 3 FT in a row and take it to OT. . .. had the foul been called
Well we almost got there but a slump in shooting did us in again. Hudson and Hayes did their job but we just don’t have that consistent go to guy that can get us some points. Bad turnovers and bad officiating..whats new? It seems like the refs aren’t consistent in their officiating this year. Even old Mic Hubert was mentioning the bad officiating the last few games. Either way we saved ourselves from playing UK and getting humiliated again. They are just head and shoulders above the rest. Hopefully we win a few in the tournament before we start dreaming about next years ballers getting here.
The worst non-call I have ever seen. Not one but all three players fouled him. He should have gone to the line and shot 3 FT. It’s one thing to not make a call on a close play. But this was not close. It was clear as day. There is no excuse for not making the call. All the officials who called that game should be fired. They do not deserve to officiate another game ever.