Auburn gets to 27 wins with SEC tournament title

Mar 17, 2024, 04:19 PM ET

NASHVILLE, Tenn.– Johni Broome scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds as No. 12 Auburn won the Tigers’ 3rd Southeastern Conference tournament championship by beating Florida 86-67 on Sunday in a game ruined by a gruesome injury to Gators center Micah Handlogten.The Tigers(27-7

)avoided the upset bug that secured the SEC’s leading 3 seeds in Friday’s quarterfinals, leaving them as the greatest seed still standing. They never tracked in the last, including titles to those won in 1985 and 2019 and earning a 2nd under coach Bruce Pearl.Denver Jones scored 11 points for Auburn.

Chad Baker-Mazara included 10 before going to the bench in addition to Broome and getting a standing ovation with two minutes left.The sixth-seeded Florida Gators( 24-11 )were playing their

fourth game in as lots of days and trying to win the program’s fifth SEC tournament title and initially considering that 2014. However they lost Handlogten, who was taken off the court on a stretcher, to a broken lower left leg within the first 3 minutes.Editor’s Picks 2 Related Zyon Pullin led the Gators with 15 points. Walter Clayton Jr. included 13, Tyrese Samuel had

12 and Thomas Haugh 11.

The Gators

attempted to make another rally to earn the title and the automated NCAA tournament berth. They trailed by as numerous as 12 points before pulling to within 38-30 at halftime.Florida got to within 45-44 with 17 minutes left on a Clayton 3-pointer. However Auburn addressed each spurt in a game where Pearl took on his

previous assistant in Florida coach Todd Golden. Pearl notched his 200th profession win at

Auburn.The Tigers’offending firepower revealed when they scored 7 straight points within 55 seconds, capped by a high-flying dunk from Jones with 14:08 to go.Auburn increased its result in as many as 21 points in the last minutes with Tigers fans standing all set to celebrate.Auburn will take a six-game winning streak into the NCAA competition.