Tennessee defeats Auburn in men's basketball

On Wednesday, the Tennessee Volunteers defeated the Auburn Tigers in Tennessee. The matchup between two top two top twenty Basketball teams had national rankings ramifications as Auburn entered the game at number 11 and Tennessee at number 4 in the nation. The win means that Tennessee is still in the running for a number 1 seed in the NCAA tournament.

“It was a really good contest” said Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl. “Two really good teams who wanted to win it really badly. We did enough things to win the game. We score 84 points on the road against a really good defensive team like Tennessee, you should be able to win.”

“I thought both teams played extremely hard and nothing easy came at either end,” said Tennessee Coach Rick Barns. “I was really impressed with all the players on both sides.’

Auburn led in the second half; but Tennessee mounted a furious comeback led by Dalton Knecht to win 92 to 84 at Thompson-Boling Arena. The fifth-year guard had 39 points for the Vols tying his career high including 25 in the last 12 minutes of the game. Knecht, a Colorado native, has scored 25 or more points in 8 of the last 14 games for the Vols.

“He got hot, and we said we were going to give it to him,” Barnes said of Knecht. “What he did in the last twelve minutes was one of the greatest performances I have ever been able to see.”

John Broome scored 23 points and had nine rebounds and five assists in a losing effort for the Tigers. Five Tigers scored in the double digits.

“Broome is awesome, I thought he was terrific with what he did,” Barns said.

The win gives Tennessee Coach Rick Barns 801 for his career. He is just four behind Rick Byrd for number 14 in career victories.

Auburn drops to 21 and 7 overall and 10 and 5 in SEC play. They play Mississippi State at Neville Arena on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Tennessee goes to Tuscaloosa next to play Alabama Saturday at 8:00 p.m.

To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandonmreporter@gmail.com