Auburn is officially headed to the first Final Four in school history after securing a 77-71 overtime victory over Kentucky.
In a routine that has become familiar in recent weeks, the Tigers started slow but rallied to send the game to overtime, where they were able to hold off P.J. Washington and company.
Washington led all scorers with 28 points, but it was once again the duo of Jared Harper and Bryce Brown that fueled Auburn to its biggest win in program history.
Harper had 26 points and hit all 11 of his free throws attempts, while Brown scored 24 and led all players with four made 3-pointers.
Bruce Pearl’s group struggled from beyond the arc for the first time in a while by going 7 of 23 for 30.4 percent, but they made it up for it by forcing the Wildcats into 14 turnovers.
Of course, Kentucky had its chances and will likely look back at its 12 of 21 performance from the free-throw line as an area that could have made a difference.
Lovell’s Analysis
With Chuma Okeke suffering a torn ACL in the win over North Carolina, many people wondered how this Auburn team would respond.
Okeke has played such a huge role in the team’s success this season, and it made sense that there would be questions about whether they’d be as effective on both sides of the court.
But while there were doubts about being able to match up against an incredible talked Kentucky team, there were very few doubts about the Tigers’ resiliency.
They’ve answered the challenge time after time at this point, and did so in this particular matchup without one of their most impactful players against an SEC nemesis that had already beaten them twice this season.
When Pearl took over the program several years ago, it was not in a good spot.
But after numerous losing seasons, Auburn has transformed itself into the only SEC team left standing in this year’s tournament.
Now the Tigers will prepare for a showdown against a Virginia team that has also quieted its critics, which will make for a fun matchup in Minneapolis.
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