Tennessee def. Auburn, 94-85 (SEC Tournament)

Hey everyone. I am located in drizzly Montgomery, Ala., for this epic battle between your Auburn Tigers and the Volunteers of Tennessee. Loser leaves town. Winner faces Mississippi State tomorrow for The Big Game.

Why am I in Montgomery? In short: My newspaper doesn't have a lot of money right now and a trip wasn't financially feasible.

OK. On with the show ...

• FINAL
  Tennessee 94, Auburn 85.
  
  
• FOURTH TO @ 3:30-ish, 2nd half
  Tennessee leads, 79-71. Same stuff. Tennessee has so many second-chance points. Better hustle = better game. Simple.
  
  
• THIRD TO @ 6:48, 2nd half
  Tennessee leads, 72-62. Auburn's offense seems fine to me, but Tennessee keeps getting second chance on its ends. That's the product of superior hustle in my book.
  
  
• SECOND TO @ 11:00-ish, 2nd half
  Tennessee leads, 65-57. I'm surprised this is an 8-point game. Auburn is being outplayed in most facets right now, but the Volunteers haven't been able to levy the knockout punch just yet. The Tigers still have a decent chance here.
  
  
• FIRST TO @ 15:00-ish, 2nd half
  Tennessee leads, 55-47.
  
  
• HALFTIME
  Tennessee 47, Auburn 36. The Volunteers are getting freaky breaks right now. I just watched a possession where UT committed two turnovers, traveled twice (both on hop steps) and still scored. That was the most funky possession I've seen all year.
  
  
• FOURTH TO @ 3:07, 1st half
  Tennessee leads, 40-29. Wayne Chism, the UT forward, already has 16 points. Might it be time for a strategic adjustment from the Tigers' head coach? We shall see.
  
  
• THIRD TO @ 7:30-ish, 1st half
  Tennessee leads, 30-22. More sloppiness from the Tigers. Tennessee also has been more accurate from three-point range than expected. They're 5-of-10 at this point.
  
  
• SECOND TO @ 11:57, 1st half
  Auburn leads, 16-15. The Tigers are sloppifying. Five turnovers already. Aside from the early dunks, though, Tennessee hasn't had much in the way of good shots.
  
  
• FIRST TO @ 15:00-ish, 1st half
  Auburn leads, 12-10. The Tigers are passing very well today. They can't go body-on-body with the Vols because they're so much bigger, but Auburn can play the steal-and-run game. It's working right now.
  
  
• YOUR AUBURN STARTERS
  PG -- Speed Reed
  SG -- Quantez Robertson, boyfriend of Sherell Hobbs
  SF -- Tay Waller, shooter
  "PF" -- Rasheem Barrett, jump shooter
  F/C -- Korvotney Barber, "dubs"
  
  

Photo credit: Todd Van Emst/Auburn University

Questions? Comments? Post directly to the blog below or email me at jgtate@gannett.com.