Well, the SEC Tournament has its Cinderella this year, and she’s wearing orange-and-blue slippers.
Auburn, seeded 13th in the 14-team tournament, won its third consecutive game in as many days. And the victory came in the most dramatic of fashion.
K.T Harrell hit a 3-pointer from the top of the key with :00.7 seconds remaining to send the game into overtime. In the extra period, the Tigers quickly shot ahead by six, then held on for 73-30 win over LSU. Harrell, a senior and the SEC’s leading scorer, led all scorers with 29 points.
For their trouble, Auburn (15-19) will get another date with No. 1-ranked and undefeated Kentucky in the tournament semifinals on Saturday. The Wildcats beat the Tigers 110-75 on Feb. 21.
Auburn first-year coach Bruce Pearl has long told his charges they can beat any team in the league “except Kentucky.” Now that they’re meeting on this significant stage, he’s having to amend that statement.
“To say we could beat any team in the league, I don’t know that I could be 100 percent about that,” Pearl said Friday. “Now that we have this opportunity to go play the most storied program in the history of college basketball, the best team in the country … we’ll try to represent. But we’re going to be short-handed. We’re already probably the smallest team in the league and we’re going against the biggest team maybe in the history of Division I basketball.
“So it’s a tough matchup for the Tigers.
It was a potentially devastating loss for the Bayou Bengals (22-10, 11-7 SEC), who are among several SEC teams hoping to play their way off the NCAA bubble in this tournament.
“Well, out mission when we came up here like everyone else was to try to be cutting the nets down here on Sunday,” coach Johnny Jones said. “That didn’t happen. So for us to get a bid for our conference now it’s going to be on the committee. We don’t control our destiny any more.”
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