Auburn men’s basketball suffered a 77-66 loss at Tennessee on Saturday night at Thompson-Boling Arena after a late rally fell short.
The Tigers (14-8, 5-4 SEC) trailed by 10 at halftime and shortened the Vols' lead to three, with under eight minutes left in the game. Unable to take the lead, the Tigers ended their four-game winning streak.
“Credit to Tennessee. They beat us at our own game,” Head Coach Steven Pearl said. “They got to the foul line 11 more times than we did, and they did a really good job of attacking the paint. They hit four early 3s, and they didn’t continue to settle for 3s like we did. They out-physicaled us and had their way.”
Keyshawn Hall poured in 16 of his team-leading 21 points after halftime, but Tennessee (15-6, 5-3 SEC) countered with four players scoring in double figures, led by freshman Nate Ament’s 22 points.
The Volunteers, who entered the game ranked fourth nationally in rebounding margin, controlled the boards and out-rebounded the Tigers 46-30.
Tennessee started the game sinking five of its first seven shots, three being 3-point shots. It grew its lead over Auburn to 13-4 by the first media timeout of the game. The Tigers found their rhythm and made their next four shots to bring the score inside of four (18-14) at the under-12 media timeout.
After the timeout, Auburn went scoreless for three minutes, allowing Tennessee to go on a 9-0 run and extend its lead to 27-14.
Sebastian Williams-Adams pulled Auburn within 10, but Tennessee answered with a layup from DeWayne Brown and consecutive baskets by Jaylen Carey to extend the lead to 37-21, its largest of the half, with 5:22 left.
Auburn closed the half on a 10-4 run, capped by a four-point play from Kevin Overton with three seconds remaining to cut Tennessee’s lead to 41-31 at halftime. The Volunteers were led by 11 points apiece from Ament and Carey, while Hall, Tahaad Pettiford and Elyjah Freeman each scored five to lead Auburn at the break.
The Tigers wore away Tennessee’s lead early in the second half, and Pettiford’s four-point play allowed Auburn to be within five at 49-44 with 13:35 to play.
An alley-oop from Pettiford to Freeman put Auburn within four points (53-49), but Tennessee replied with a 6-0 run, extending the Vols' lead back to ten with 9:07 remaining.
Auburn answered again with a quick 7-0 run, capped by a Filip Jovic and-one that pulled the Tigers within three, 59-56, with 7:08 remaining.
That would be as close as Auburn came, however, as Tennessee responded with a 6-0 run to regain control and later stretched the lead to 11 at 70-59 on a Carey layup with 4:28 left.
Auburn made one final push when Hall hit his third 3-pointer to cut the deficit to six, but Tennessee took consecutive offensive rebounds to drain the clock and secured the win at the free-throw line.
The Tigers will have a week off before returning to Neville Arena to host rival Alabama next Saturday, Feb. 7. The time will be announced early next week.
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Jonathan is a freshman majoring in industrial and systems engineering. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2025.
