ATLANTA — With 12:26 remaining in the second half, No. 1 Auburn was on the ropes and you could feel the intensity in the building. The thousands of Tigers fans, that had made the trip East wondered if the championship season was about to come to a close.
Nothing was clicking for the Tigers as they suffered 10 turnovers and shot an abysmal 3-of-16 from behind the arc in the first half.
Michigan came out of halftime firing on all cylinders. Led by Danny Wolf’s nine points out of the break, Michigan took a commanding 48-39 lead. It seemed as if Wolf would haunt Auburn fans for eternity.
Auburn’s storybook season was about to strike midnight and then it was Denver Jones and Taahad Pettiford time.
Pettiford and Jones traded three-pointers to spark a 10-0 Auburn run which sent State Farm Arena into a frenzy.
“They got really heated up. Denver got heated up. Tahaad got heated up. We went to them, and they delivered,” Auburn Head Coach Bruce Pearl said.
The Wolverines finally stopped the Tigers avalanche with a Rubin Jones layup to cut their deficit to 51-50.
Just when you thought Michigan was going to punch back and retake the lead, Jones hit a three, and then another one, and then a layup to put Auburn up 59-50 with 7:29 to go. The senior finished the night with 20 points, his second most on the season.
“Honestly, I just saw one go in, and I just felt the basket got bigger. I just wanted to continue being aggressive. Coach was getting me more involved in the plays, and I was just taking more advantage of it,” Jones said.
Pettiford shot 7-14 from the field on the night with two clutch threes during Auburn’s 39-17 run in the second half. It was shades of Kyrie Irving shaking and baking for the true freshman.
“Started off a little slow, not how I wanted to start, but having guys like this just to back me up knowing that they've got my back, just an amazing feeling,” Pettiford said.
It wasn’t just raining threes that helped Auburn turn the tide in Atlanta. The Tigers turned it up another level on the defensive end, holding Michigan’s Wolf to zero points in the last 13 minutes of the game.
Auburn never lost confidence in themselves which was why they were able to mount the comeback.
“Being honest, we were playing bad. We were turning the ball over a lot, and we weren't guarding. But we were still in the game, so everybody said let's get three stops. And three led into four and four led into five stops, and we went on a little run and the crowd got involved, and we started playing Auburn basketball,” Johni Broome said on the conversations amongst the team before they went on the run.
Chad Baker-Mazara’s dunk with 29 seconds to go put the exclamation point on Auburn’s 78-65 victory, their 31st of the year which sets the new program record.
The Tigers will face the Michigan State Spartans and legendary coach Tom Izzo on Sunday afternoon at 5:05 p.m. EST with a trip to the Final Four on the line.
“We're not going to do too much celebrating tonight. We've got another game. We've got to prep. We've got to take care of our bodies. We've got to rest. Let's try to get to San Antonio to the Final Four,” Broome said.
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Rory is a freshman majoring in journalism sports production. He started with The Plainsman in the spring of 2025.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @RorymGarvin
