Auburn’s season comes to shocking end in loss to Yale

With 7:27 left in the second half, Auburn held a 68-58 lead over Yale, its largest lead of the game, and seemingly just had to hold off the Bulldogs a little longer to reach the Round of 32.

However, missed free throws, missed field goals and turnovers proved crucial over the last seven minutes, and the Tigers saw their 10-point lead dwindle and their hopes of an NCAA Tournament run fade as Auburn was upset by the Bulldogs 78-76 – putting an end to the SEC Tournament winner’s season.

“We knew exactly what we’re getting ourselves into,” said head coach Bruce Pearl. “We knew we’d have to play well to win. We did not take good care of the ball. We turned it over too much.”

Johni Broome led the Tigers in his final game in an Auburn uniform with 24 points, 13 rebounds and four assists. Denver Jones poured in 17 points, and Jaylin Williams added 13 to the box score in his final game as an Auburn Tiger.

None of it was enough, however, as Auburn could not keep Yale off the free-throw line and could not contain the Bulldogs’ John Poulakidas, who finished the game with 28 points and six 3-pointers.

“They made big shots,” Pearl said. “John got hot, and we just couldn't guard him. He made some big plays and big buckets, and that’s what guys got to do.”

Auburn turned the ball over 14 times, six of which came in the final seven minutes, and sent Yale to the free-throw line 31 times throughout the game, with the Bulldogs making 21 of those attempts.

Auburn, meanwhile, shot 22 times from the charity stripe with 15 makes. Jones missed a free throw with the Tigers trailing by one with 46 seconds left, and point guard Tre Donaldson missed two free throws with six seconds remaining with the Tigers trailing by two.

His second missed free throw ended in an offensive rebound by Broome, but a shot by Williams to tie was blocked. Guard K.D. Johnson grabbed another offensive rebound for the Tigers and pulled it out for a 3-pointer, but his attempt clanked off the rim as the buzzer sounded to end Auburn’s season.

Auburn forward Chad Baker-Mazara, who averaged 10 points per game and has been a staple of the Auburn offense since moving into the starting lineup, saw his first NCAA Tournament game as a Tiger end sourly.

Baker-Mazara, just three minutes into the game, was ejected after being issued a flagrant-two foul for elbowing a Yale player in the chest. Pearl questioned the referees’ decision to call it a flagrant-two foul instead of just a flagrant-one, which would’ve kept the forward in the game, and said his ejection had “a tremendous impact on the outcome.”

“The decision to flagrant-two Chad Baker, that's a pretty tough call,” Pearl said. “(He) had got hit about five seconds earlier. Got tangled up. Got a little bit of an elbow. They let it go. Maybe nobody saw it. About five seconds later, Chad hit him. It was inappropriate. Clearly a flagrant-one. The fact that it was elevated to a flagrant-two is a decision that the official had to make.”

Auburn held a seven-point lead going into halftime as the Tigers forced Yale into nine turnovers through the first 20 minutes.

Coming into the game, Yale averaged just nine turnovers per game, good for the 11th fewest in the country, but Auburn could not keep up the same defensive intensity – only turning Yale over twice in the second half while allowing the Bulldogs to shoot 52% from the field and 45.5% from deep and score 44 second-half points.

“I think our second half defense wasn't as good,” Pearl said. “We didn't turn them over as much. We succumbed to fatigue a little bit. They made a bunch of shots. Offensively, we turned the ball over too much in the second half to win.”

With the loss, Auburn finished the season 27-8 and for the third consecutive season, failed to advance past the Round of 32. Since the Tigers’ run to the Final Four in 2019, Auburn is now just 2-3 in the NCAA Tournament.