SEC’s lower seeds make some noise
NASHVILLE — Tolu Smith grabbed 12 rebounds and scored a career-high 28 points, including a go-ahead basket in overtime with 4.3 seconds left, and ninth-seeded Mississippi State beat eighth-seeded Florida 69-68 in the second round of the Southeastern Conference tournament Thursday at Bridgestone Arena.
Mississippi State (21-11) advances to play top-seeded, fourth-ranked Alabama (26-5) in Friday’s first quarterfinal at 1 p.m. Eastern. The top four SEC seeds received double byes into the quarterfinals.
The Crimson Tide, who won the SEC regular-season title with a game to spare, will be coming off a 67-61 loss at Texas A&M last Saturday. They swept two regular-season meetings with Mississippi State, 78-67 on Dec. 28 in Starkville and 66-63 on Jan. 25 in Tuscaloosa.
Smith started overtime against Florida (16-16) with a three-point play, and Cameron Matthews dunked it on the Bulldogs’ next possession as their lead grew. Dashawn Davis had his second straight assist that led to a dunk when he lobbed it to Shawn Jones Jr. for a highlight finish and a 64-59 advantage. Florida missed a 3-point attempt, and Smith extended the lead to seven points with a shot in the lane off another assist by Davis.
Gators freshman Riley Kugel made a 3 with 37.1 seconds left to pull within 67-64, and Mississippi State turned it over near midcourt before Kugel was fouled on a drive. He made two free throws, the Bulldogs turned it over again, and Niels Lane scored with 11.8 seconds left to put Florida up 68-67.
Mississippi State elected not to call a timeout, and Davis drove the lane to find Smith open for a basket. The Bulldogs then called a timeout to set up their defense. Florida guard Myreon Jones inbounded the ball and got it back, but his long 3-point try was off the mark at the buzzer.
Shakeel Moore scored 12 points of his 13 points in the first half for Mississippi State, and Davis added nine rebounds and eight assists.
Kugel finished with 14 points for Florida, while Jones was held scoreless in the first half but finished with 11 points, a total matched by teammate Kowacie Reeves.
Florida scored the final six points of regulation on 3-pointers by Jones. He had a chance to win the game in regulation at the buzzer with another 3, but his shot was short.
› Arkansas 76, Auburn 73
Anthony Black scored 19 points and the 10th-seeded Razorbacks (20-12) held off No. 7 seed Auburn (20-12) to resume the upset theme at this year’s SEC tourney.
Through the first five games of the event, fifth-seeded Tennessee was the only higher seed to advance. The 17th-ranked Volunteers ended the brief run of 13th-seeded Ole Miss, which had beaten 12th-seeded South Carolina in Wednesday’s opener for the 14-team bracket. Later that night, 14th-seeded LSU beat 11th-seeded Georgia to reach the second round and Thursday’s late game against sixth-seeded Vanderbilt.
The winner of that one faces No. 3 seed Kentucky in Friday’s last quarterfinal.
Auburn used a 15-6 run for a 73-72 advantage with 41 seconds remaining, its only lead since scoring the first two points of the game. Nick Smith Jr. answered with a jumper for Arkansas, and Davonte Davis then forced a turnover and added a pair of free throws to cap the scoring with 11 seconds left. Wendell Green Jr. missed a 3-point attempt to end it.
Smith added 14 points, Makhi Mitchell 12 and Jordan Walsh 11 for Arkansas (20-12), which avenged a 13-point loss to the Tigers from Jan. 7 and will play second-seeded Texas A&M (23-8) on Friday night.
K.D. Johnson scored 20 points to lead Auburn, which was outrebounded 37-19. Allen Flanigan added 15 points, Johni Broome 13 and Green 11.
Arkansas was up 37-33 at intermission, opened the second half on an 11-2 run for a 13-point lead with 17 minutes to play and stretched it to 15 about three minutes later.