Tennessee Basketball is advancing to the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament after a victory over Auburn on Thursday afternoon in Nashville. The 5-seed Vols defeated the 12-seed Tigers by a score of 72-62 in front of a packed Bridgestone Arena.
Tennessee jumped out of the gates with the lead, but Auburn quickly took it away. The Tigers held a 7-point halftime lead and kept their separation for the first 10 minutes of the second half. That’s when Tennessee turned up the heat. Led by star freshman Nate Ament in his return to the court from injury, Tennessee erupted for a 20-0 run on Auburn over a six-minute stretch. The Tigers did not score from the 10:26 mark to the 3:50 mark as the Vols continued to rack up points in the paint and at the free-throw line.
Former Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl took note of the officiating during the run and commented on it on social media.
“There’s Rim Protection and there’s what’s been allowed to happen in the last 10 minutes,” Pearl posted to X.
There’s Rim Protection and there’s what’s been allowed to happen in the last 10 minutes.
— Bruce Pearl (@coachbrucepearl) March 12, 2026
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Pearl’s tweet indicates his discontent and belief that Tennessee was fouling Auburn during the Vols’ run, but the Tigers weren’t getting the calls for it. He’s essentially saying that it’s one thing to be physical and go contest a shot, but that Tennessee had been fouling on defense and nothing was coming of it. Auburn only attempted one free throw, which was a miss by Keyshawn Hall, during the Vols’ 20-0 run.
Steven Pearl, the head coach of Auburn and the son of Bruce, was asked after the game if he had any issues with the way the game was called in the second half.
“Yeah, I mean, we’re in the bonus with 12 minutes left,” Pearl said in the postgame interview. “Eight and a half minutes without a foul called, that’s tough because that’s a really physical team and they do a great job defensively. They do a great job of getting vertical at the rim. I thought a couple times we did a great job of using shot fakes to draw contact. There was contact on a few of those three-point shots. I don’t have a lot issues with the calls that they got on the other end because we fouled them. We got to do a better job in those situations of not fouling. I thought there were a couple inconsistencies.
“[The officials] have a hard job. It’s a really physical game. It’s a really fast-paced game. We have the best athletes in all of college basketball who make crazy plays. The alley-oop in transition that Okpara sprinted back and blocked. Was there contact there? Sure. That’s a hell of a play. A hell of a play. Not many leagues where that play is being played. It’s frustrating. I’m going to fight for my guys. We’re a team that’s fifth in the country to get to the foul line. Two of our lowest free throw rates have been against Tennessee. They do a great job in those two games of guarding without fouling. I thought there were a couple situations when the game got tight where I thought our guys did the thing we asked them to do offensively. But we can’t let that affect the next play. I thought we did that a little bit too much in this game.”
Tennessee head coach Rick Barnes said that the game was “a battle from start to finish.” He also mentioned that he felt like Tennessee’s defense “certainly got better as the game went on.”
“Our game is more physical than the NBA,” Barnes said. “You look, we obviously don’t have the size and the mass that they have. In terms of the freedom of movement, trying to post up, all those type things.”
The Vols’ physical play turned into momentum during the run, and that’s what led to Tennessee climbing back into the game and taking the lead. Out of Tennessee’s 20 points during the run, six came at the free throw line. The Vols also had two layups and one dunk in that stretch. Ultimately, Tennessee made an impression with its physicality and Auburn didn’t have the necessary response.
With the win on Thursday, Tennessee Basketball now moves into the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament. The 5-seed Vols will take on the 4-seed Vanderbilt Commodores on Thursday afternoon in Bridgestone Arena.
Stay tuned to Rocky Top Insider for live, on-site coverage of the game on Thursday.
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