KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team led from start to finish Saturday night in a 77-69 win against Auburn at a sold-out Food City Center.
Freshman forward Nate Ament, who went 12-of-15 at the line, led all scorers with 22 points for Tennessee (15-6, 5-3) in the team’s third consecutive triumph.
The Volunteers raced out to a 16-6 lead after just 4:54 of action, opening 6-of-8 from the field—they rebounded both misses—and connecting on five shots in a row, three of which were from beyond the arc. Buoyed by four straight makes from both the field and the line, Auburn (14-8, 5-4 SEC) cut it to 18-14 at the 12:11 mark.
Tennessee, though, countered with a 9-0 burst in just 2:30 to go up by 13 points, 27-14, with 9:02 left in the session. Soon after, it used a 6-0 run over 57 seconds of action to claim a game-best 16-point lead, 37-21, with 5:22 on the timer, with junior forward Jaylen Carey already notching 11 points.
However, the Volunteers—following a 14-of-23 start—did not make a field goal the rest of the stanza, missing their final eight attempts. Auburn, meanwhile, closed the half with a four-point play with 3.2 seconds left to make it a 10-point margin, 41-31, through 20 minutes.
Tennessee scored the initial basket of the second frame, but Auburn responded with consecutive three-point plays in just 38 seconds to slice its deficit in half, to 43-37, with 18:14 left. The Volunteers immediately pushed the lead back to 10 just 65 seconds later, but Auburn soon got it down to five, 49-44 with 13:35 to go, with the help of another four-point play.
The Tigers clawed within four just 100 ticks after that, but Tennessee answered with six straight points in just 53 seconds to go in front by double digits, 59-49, with 9:07 remaining. Auburn, though, went on a 7-0 spurt in 99 seconds to make it a one-possession affair, 59-56, with 7:08 to play. Another stretch of six consecutive points for the home team made it 65-56 with 5:36 on the timer.
Auburn drilled a 3-pointer at the other end, but Tennessee scored five points in a row to push its advantage to 11, 70-59, with 4:28 to go, concluding a stretch of four consecutive makes. The lead stayed the same with under three minutes left, but five straight points by the visitors trimmed their deficit to six, 72-66, with 1:55 remaining.
The two sides split the next four points, but Tennessee scored the next three from the stripe to go up by nine with 20 seconds left, effectively icing the decision. An Auburn free throw nine ticks later capped the scoring.
Ament became the first Volunteer with 12-plus made free throws and/or 15-plus attempts since Jan. 23, 2019, and the first with 15-plus attempts in a regulation contest since Nov. 13, 2018. In addition, he became the first SEC freshman with 15-plus attempts in over three years, plus co-led all players with eight rebounds.
Carey finished with 13 points and matched Ament in the rebound column, as did sophomore guard Bishop Boswell and freshman guard Amari Evans who had seven and six points, respectively. Senior guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie tallied 11 points and a team-high five assists, while freshman forward DeWayne Brown II notched 10 points, seven rebounds, a career-best four assists and a career-high two steals.
Ament, Boswell, Carey and Evans became the second Tennessee quartet with eight-plus rebounds in the same game over the last 20 seasons (2006-26) and the first since Dec. 23, 2013. Brown gave the Volunteers a quintet of players with seven-plus boards for the first time in the last two decades, marking just the 12th such occurrence by an SEC team in that span.
Senior forward Keyshawn Hall, after starting 1-of-8 from the field through 28 minutes, finished 7-of-17 to lead the Tigers with 21 points. He not only made six of his final nine field goals, but also three of his last five 3-point tries after a 0-of-4 beginning.
Sophomore guard Tahaad Pettiford put up 11 points, but the Volunteers limited him to a 4-of-14 field-goal clip that included just a 2-of-11 ledger from long range. No other Tiger reached double figures.
Tennessee held Auburn, which entered the night at No. 10 nationally in KenPom adjusted offensive efficiency, to 38.1 percent (24-of-63) shooting, including 22.6 percent (7-of-31) from 3-point range.
The victors, who led for 39:21, finished with an 80.6 percent (25-of-31) ledger at the free-throw line, their second-best clip of the season.
Up next for Tennessee is a second consecutive home game at Food City Center, where it takes the court Tuesday at 7 p.m. for a matchup with Ole Miss, live on ESPN2. Vol Network coverage begins at 6:30pm on 103.1FM WIKQ.
