The No. 1 seeded Auburn Tigers did not last long in the SEC Tournament.
The SEC regular-season champions were upset by the No. 8 seed Texas A&M Aggies 67-62 on Friday in the Tigers’ first and only game in Tampa.
An abysmal first-half offensive performance by the Tigers put them in a hole that proved too much to crawl out of, sending the Tigers packing.
“We have got to hit open shots,” said Wendell Green Jr. “They were leaving us wide open in the first half, and we were missing."
Down by as many as twenty, Auburn crawled back late the second half, behind four straight Green Jr. threes to close the gap to as close as four.
But much like Florida’s run at the Aggies the day before, both comebacks came up short.
“It is hard to win in March,” Green said. “You just got to be ready to play. You have got to throw the first punch."
Auburn started its day shooting horribly. The orange and blue shot just 16.2% the whole first half, with Jabari Smith scoring nine of the team’s 21 points.
In the first half, K.D. Johnson went 0-9 from the field, Green Jr. went 1-7 and Walker Kessler went 1-3.
On the day, Johnson did not make a single basket, missing all 14 of his attempts.
"Once the ball is not going in, it is tough,” said head coach Bruce Pearl. “He couldn’t buy one.”
The first half was basically surmised by Auburn’s final play: a lob to Dylan Cardwell that was wide open, but as Cardwell threw the ball down, it bounced off the rim and flew into the stands as time expired.
Auburn went to the locker room down 37-21.
For Texas A&M, the first half was a completely different story.
The Aggies found themselves in plenty of situations to shoot open threes, and did so effectively, making five of nine. Texas A&M shot 45.5% in the opening 20 minutes, as Henry Coleman led the scoring charge between both teams with 12 points on 6-9 shooting.
Coleman finished the game with 16 points and 10 boards.
The second half played out mostly the same, until the waning minutes saw a passionate Auburn comeback.
The Tigers opened up the half with the ball, but had to call a full 60-second timeout late in the shot clock.
Out of the stoppage, the Tigers were able to regroup and Kessler scored at the rim. Kessler’s bucket 30 seconds into the second half was the first field goal by Auburn since the 3:45 mark in the first half.
Auburn went down and scored on its second possession, behind a contortionist lay-in by Allen Flanigan.
However, it would be another three minutes until Auburn scored again.
That was the type of day it was for Auburn, a game that saw Auburn in scoring droughts that the team simply couldn’t withstand.
"Texas A&M out-played us, they were tougher than we were,” Pearl said. “They made shots."
The second half for Auburn was mostly all Kessler, until Green went nuclear late.
Kessler notched 13 second-half points on 100% shooting and grabbed five boards. The center also added two blocks and two steals.
With 6:59 to go in the game, Auburn found itself down 12, which was a familiar feeling all through the contest.
After inbounding the ball, Green Jr. took the rock to his signature spot, about 35 feet deep on the left side, and drained a three.
The Auburn fans, who severely outnumbered the Aggie faithful, erupted and the comeback seemingly had begun.
90 seconds later, Green Jr. found the exact spot again and swished another.
Two minutes later, he made a third.
40 seconds later, he made a fourth.
In a matter of minutes, Green Jr. put the game within striking distance and Auburn had a chance. Auburn was down 60-55 and the sea of orange in Amalie Arena was ready to explode.
Smith hit a three a minute later, with 37 ticks remaining, and Auburn was down 62-58.
But after four straight free throw makes by the Aggies’ Quenton Jackson, the game was finally out of reach.
Pearl noted after the game that if one were to subtract the three point makes by Smith and Green Jr., Auburn only shot 6% from deep.
"We had two or three guys that played really well,” Pearl said. “We need more than that."
In the end, shooting percentage killed the Tigers’ hopes at winning the SEC Tournament, or winning one game at all.
While Auburn may have outscored Texas A&M by nine points in the second half, the 16 point first half deficit was far too much to overcome.
The Aggies, who have won two games in as many days, said they expected this outcome.
“We don’t expect to lose,” Jackson said.
Texas A&M will now wait to play the winner of the LSU and Arkansas game, in the quarterfinals of the SEC Tournament.
As for Auburn, it will be a long couple days of waiting to see where the Tigers are seeded in the NCAA Tournament.
The Tigers’ time in Tampa is over as soon as it started.
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Henry Zimmer is from Jacksonville, Florida, and is currently in his fifth year with The Plainsman. He is currently the Assistant Sports Editor and can be followed on Twitter here: @henryzimmer
