NASHVILLE The Tennessee Volunteers managed to avoid a massive self-destruction Thursday as they held on to defeat the Auburn Tigers 73-66 at the Gaylord Entertainment Center.
The win marks the first time the Vols (22-9) have made it past the first round of the Southeastern Conference Tournament since 1998.
Volunteer forward Ron Slay exploded for 22 points and 11 rebounds off the bench to pace the Vols. Marcus Haislip followed with 11 points on 4-of-6 shooting.
We came in focused this year, Slay said. We wanted to get some new standards for our team.
The new standard was set by Tennessee subs as the UT bench outscored the Tiger bench 40-30.
Our depth really did help us, Vol head coach Jerry Green said.
Another plus for Tennessee was found in the paint as UT outrebounded Auburn 49-38. The Vols pounded on Auburn early, jumping out to a 14-4 lead after Charles Hathaway rocked the rim courtesy of Tony Harris’ assist in the lane.
After an Auburn timeout, Slay went to work with a putback in the paint. Harris followed with a free throw to make it 17-6.
Slay then took over the game with a 9-0 run by himself to extend the UT lead to 26-8 with 10:45 left in the half.
Ron Slay played a great game, Auburn head coach Cliff Ellis said. If they play like they did within the first 10 minutes for the entire 40 minutes, they can win it all.
Isiah Victor pushed the lead to 19 points after converting a three-point play with 7:37 left.
However, Auburn’s Jamison Brewer, who finished with 14 points, kept the Tigers fighting as he scored five consecutive points to make it 38-25 at halftime.
The Vols held the Tigers to a mere 29 percent shooting in the first half. Auburn finished shooting only 30.6 percent for the game while Tennessee shot 39.7 percent from the floor.
The Volunteer meltdown began at the opening whistle of the second half.
Adam Harrington drained a 3 followed by a layup to cut Tennessee’s lead to 38-30. Harrington scored a game-high 25 points and grabbed eight boards.
I thought we played very well in the first half, Haislip said, but we hit a slump in the second half.
Tennessee hit quite a slump as Charles Hathaway’s foul shot with 18:15 left was Tennessee’s only offense for the first 8:39 of the second half as the Vols allowed the Tigers to claw their way back into the contest.
A quick 3-point miss by Tony Harris and a Vincent Yarbrough fumble led to Harrington’s draining a 3 to make it 39-33. Yarbrough was then stripped of the ball and Brewer followed with two foul shots.
After Slay stepped out of bounds, Higgins picked up his fourth foul with 13:57 to play.
Brewer followed the Tennessee mistakes by draining a 3 from the left wing to give Auburn its first lead at 40-39.
The Tigers extended their lead to 51-46 courtesy of Lincoln Glass’ two 3-pointers and five Harrington free throws.
Auburn had a lot to do with us losing that lead, Green said. They played awfully well.
Tennessee, however, quickly put the fire out when Yarbrough blocked a 3-point attempt which led to a Terrence Woods 3-pointer. Haislip followed suit with a layup on a fast break led by Slay as the Vols regained the lead, 54-53.
Slay then took control of the paint once again as he scored Tennessee’s next seven points for a 61-57 lead, pacing the Vols down the stretch to the seven point win.
I started looking down the bench to see what everybody else was thinking, Slay said. A lot of people had their heads down.
Coach (Green) gave me the opportunity to go in and play, and I (gave us a spark) on the floor.
Tennessee faces the West No. 1, Mississippi, in the quarterfinal round today at 1 p.m. (TV: Jefferson Pilot).
