It was a battle early on between the Auburn Tigers and Tennesee Vols, as the two went back and forth.
Facing a 19-13 deficit in the latter part of the first half, the Tigers defense put on the pressure and the offense answered with a 13-0 run. The Vols were finally able to stop the bleeding as they cut into the Auburn lead 26-21 with under three to play until halftime.
The Vols were cleaning the class in the first half, they pulled down 11 offensive rebounds leading to 10 second-chance points. Tennessee was getting those opportunities due to the 23 missed shots early on. They were shooting 28.1% from the floor.
Jabari led the way in the first half with 11 points, five rebounds, and one block. Walker Kessler was held to just two points in the first half with four rebounds and two blocks. Wendell Green Jr provided the energy with five points, five rebounds, and four steals off the bench.
Coming out in the second half, it got chippy with Smith and Tennessee’s Uros Plavsic. It culminated in Smith getting a very questionable technical foul called against him. It was a lot of sloppy play to open the second half as emotions ran high for both teams.
Once Smith and Kessler went to the bench, the Vols were able to make a run to get the game tied at 39 with under 13 to go. During this stretch, the Tigers went a full five minutes without a single field goal, their two points coming from Smith at the charity stripe. KD Johnson finally broke through. with under eight to go in the game.
Down the stretch, Auburn just couldn’t stop the bleeding with the lack of scoring. The team went from the 16:42 mark of the second half to 7:19 between field goals. Following the cold streak being snapped, Tennessee did basically what they wanted. Tigers were down 11 with 3:38 left in the game and they needed some Jabari magic to happen to win this game.
Smith wouldn’t score until 1:08 remaining when he sunk both free throw attempts after getting fouled on a jump shot. The Tigers trailed 63-56 at that point of the game. On the following inbound, Smith nailed a three-pointer in which he was fouled. He added another free throw on the four-point play. Despite getting within three, it just wasn’t enough.
Auburn dropped their fourth game of the year, 67-62. Smith led the team with 27 points.