Tennessee basketball beats Auburn for third top five win this season: Three takeaways

Bruce Pearl’s Auburn Tigers join the Kentucky Wildcats and Arizona Wildcats as the three top five teams to lose to Tennessee basketball at Thompson-Boling Arena this year. The Vols, ranked No. 17 in both polls, beat the No. 3 ranked team in the AP Poll and No. 4 ranked team in the Coaches Poll 67-62 to remain undefeated at home on the year.

This was a game of runs. UT had an 8-0 run in the first half, but Auburn had a 13-0 run and went into halftime up 31-25. However, the big run came in the second half. Down 39-28, the Vols went on an 11-0 run and a 17-2 run to go up 45-41. They never lost the lead after that and snapped a six-game losing streak to Pearl, beating Auburn for the first time since 2017.

Rocky Top improved to 21-7, clinched a double-bye in the SEC Tournament and entered the regular season title race with a 12-4 league record and a trip to the Georgia Bulldogs set for Tuesday. Auburn falls to 25-4 and 13-3 in the SEC with a trip to the Mississippi State Bulldogs set for Wednesday. Here are three things we learned from Tennessee basketball’s victory.

1. Defense and rebounding was the difference.

Pat Summitt would be proud. The Vols lost the turnover battle, they shot worse from the field, only hit one more three and had similar percentages from the free throw line. However, they made up for it on the glass. UT outrebounded Auburn 54-30 thanks to 21 offensive boards, winning 19-8 on second chance points. It was a team effort, as nobody had 10 rebounds.

Meanwhile, the defense had six blocks and nine steals. They forced Auburn to shoot barely over 35 percent from three. Brandon Huntley-Hatfield had five offensive boards, eight overall and two blocks. Santiago Vescovi also had two blocks. John Fulkerson had six offensive boards and nine overall. Zakai Zeigler had three steals. Josiah-Jordan James had two and nine boards overall.

2. Depth was on the Vols’ side.

Although they have issues in the post with Olivier Nkamhoua out, Tennessee basketball can go deeper there. We mentioned Fulkerson and Brandon Huntley-Hatfield. Well, James can play down low, and there’s still Jonas Aidoo. That combined with Zeigler gave the Vols a depth advantage.

All four UT perimeter players hit double figures. Vescovi had 14, Chandler and Zeigler had 13 and James had 10. Rocky Top’s bench outscored Auburn’s bench 19-5. Fulky and Zeigler were crucial to the defense and rebounding edge off the bench, and they combined for 18 points.

3. Handling the press is a concern.

They weren’t great offensively, and it was almost made worse because the Vols had 18 turnovers. The problem was they couldn’t handle Pearl’s press that fans on Rocky Top are all too familiar with. It nearly cost them in the end. UT was seemingly in control up 63-53 with 75 seconds left. Just 16 seconds later, they were only up 63-60.

Now, they regained their composure, but they kept turning the ball over on in-bound plays that Auburn was pressing on. Vescovi and Chandler each had four turnovers. Tennessee basketball overcame this, and their strong second half is to be commended, but Barnes has to address this going forward.