The SEC Tournament semifinals kicked off Friday, with the top four seeds playing for a spot in the championship.
It was an all-chalk semifinal Saturday in Music City. The four best teams in the conference clashed, with Tennessee and Florida both coming out on top. They will play for a third time this season tomorrow.
Florida is returning to the championship for the second season in a row after losing to Auburn in the finals last year.
Final Scores:
Tennessee 70Â Auburn 65
Florida 102Â Alabama 82
Takeaway #1: Tennessee Upsets Auburn
The Vols, after just losing to Auburn on the road a couple of months ago, got sweet revenge in front of a Vols-heavy crowd to give Auburn its third loss in two weeks.
Auburn will have to find ways to get others involved to help out Johni Broome, who had another big day with 23 points but continued to struggle from the free-throw line, going 5-12 from the charity stripe.
Freshman standout Tahaad Pettiford had his worst game of the season, putting up a donut on 0-8 shooting from the floor, and will have to step up if Auburn wants to get to the mountain top as the top seed.
“I’ll roll with Tahaad all day, every day, man,” said head coach Bruce Pearl.Â
As a team, Auburn shot 6-21 from three and will have to continue to get good looks for Miles Kelly and Denver Jones.
Zakai Zeigler had another big day with 20 points to carry the Volunteers with a perfect 9-9 from the free throw line. The Vols had a big lead late but gave it up to allow Auburn to cut it to two, but as it has leaned on all year with good defense, they got enough stops late to hold on to the win.
Free throws win games in March. Vols shot 25-27, and Jahmai Mashack iced the game late with two big free throws. Jordan Gainey was big offensively to calm the Vols down as the second-leading scorer with 15 points. The Vols dominated the glass 35-27, holding Auburn to 11 second-chance points.
Takeaway #2: Gators Dominate Tide Again
The Gators and the Tide met just 10 days before today’s meeting, and the Gators dominated again. They have eliminated the Tide in back-to-back SEC Tournaments.
Grant Nelson was balling early and had a posterized dunk over Alex Condon, but appeared to have gotten injured later on in the half and did not check back in, which hurt the Tide tremendously, and the team could not recover.
“He’s got that knee injury. Not exactly sure what it is. Hopefully, we get him back for the first round of the NCAA Tournament,” said head coach Nate Oats.
Mark Sears and Labaron Philon both struggled offensively and went a combined 4-19 from the field. The Tide will have to regroup and refocus next week.
“With the effort and the toughness I saw the second half tonight, that’s not going to get us very far. It may not get us out of the first round,” said Oats.
The Gators and Todd Golden just have the Tide’s number outscoring the Tide by 20 in the second half. The tandem of Walter Clayton Jr., Alijah Martin, and Will Richard continue to be lights out with 54 points. The Gators on the defensive end made it tough for Alabama to get anything going.
Florida’s bigs were much tougher on the glass. Rueben Chinyelu, despite foul trouble, had a double-double in 16 minutes of game time, and Micah Handlogten also had 10 rebounds.Â
Sunday’s game:
4. Tennessee vs. 2. Florida – Noon CT