Recap: Auburn gets revenge, cuts down the nets in Nashville

The Auburn Tigers are your 2023-2024 SEC Tournament Champions. 

The Auburn Tigers are your 2023-2024 SEC Tournament Champions.

Bruce Pearl challenged his team to win nine games in a row before its SEC Tournament opener on Friday and [autotag]Johni Broome[/autotag] and company have responded by notching the first three.

While it wasn’t quite Neville Arena, Sunday’s championship against Florida felt like a home game in “Auburn North”.

The Auburn family brought the energy inside Bridgestone Arena from the get-go, although the building did calm down significantly following a gruesome leg injury suffered by Florida center Micah Handlogten.

Handlogten was ultimately stretchered off, and the energy returned to the tune of Auburn defensively disrupting a potent Gators offense en route to a 38-30 halftime lead.

Mark Clayton Jr. and the rest of the Gator offense managed to cut the Auburn lead to a single point quickly into the second half, getting the score to 45-44 within the first four minutes. Guard [autotag]Trae Donaldson[/autotag] quickly responded by knocking down a “parking lot” 3-point shot then stealing a Clayton Jr. pass on the other end that turned into a [autotag]Denver Jones[/autotag] transition dunk.

From that moment on it was all Auburn. The Tigers outscored Florida 41-27 from that point on. The Championship was in hand by the under 4:00 timeout.

While Donaldson had a massive impact off the bench, the star of the afternoon was none other than forward [autotag]Johni Broome[/autotag], who picked up his second double-double of the SEC Tournament.

The Junior led all scorers in the game with 19 points while also providing 3 blocks on the defensive end. Forwards [autotag]Jaylin Williams[/autotag], [autotag]Chris Moore[/autotag], [autotag]Chaney Johnson[/autotag], and [autotag]Dylan Cardwell[/autotag] also played fantastic minutes against a tall Florida front court.

Auburn’s 86-67 win continues a trend of dominance we’ve seen from Auburn this season. Every Tigers win has come by double-digits other than one.

The Tigers have every chance to run the table again in the NCAA Tournament. We’ll see who they’ll face in a few short hours.

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