Auburn beats Florida to win SEC tourney
NASHVILLE — Auburn asked its fans to come to Music City and support their men’s basketball program in the Southeastern Conference championship game Sunday afternoon.
The fans answered the call in the seats at Bridgestone Arena. The Tigers did their part on the court.
Johni Broome had 19 points, 11 rebounds, three blocks and as many assists to lead 12th-ranked, fourth-seeded Auburn past sixth-seeded Florida, 86-67, as the Tigers won the SEC tournament for the third time overall and second time under coach Bruce Pearl.
“All of the Auburn family got in their cars,” said Pearl, who is in his 10th season with the program. “They drove up north from North Alabama, Central Alabama, South Alabama.”
The Tigers (27-7) avoided the upset bug that took out the SEC’s top three seeds in Friday’s quarterfinals — they strolled past fifth-seeded South Carolina in that round — leaving them as the highest seed still standing after the third day of the tourney. They held off ninth-seeded Mississippi State to win again Saturday, then never trailed Florida in the final, adding to their titles won in 1985 and 2019.
“It just makes it more special,” Broome said after being honored as tournament MVP. “I wanted it for myself, but I wanted to see the smiles on my teammates’ faces and my coaches’ faces because we worked so hard to be here.”
Denver Jones scored 11 points for Auburn, which had a double bye in the 14-team bracket as one of the top four seeds, and Chad Baker-Mazara added 10 before going to the bench along with Broome and getting a standing ovation with two minutes left.
The Gators (24-11) were playing their fourth game in as many days — they beat 11th-seeded Georgia, third-seeded Alabama and seventh-seeded Texas A&M — and were trying to win the program’s fifth SEC tournament title and first since 2014.
Sunday’s matchup, though, was quickly marred by a gruesome injury to Gators center Micah Handlogten, who was taken off the court on a stretcher with a broken lower left leg within the first three minutes.
Handlogten was trying to come down with a rebound when he landed awkwardly on his left foot.
He immediately went down in pain and rolled onto his side, putting his hands to his face. What sounded like bone breaking could be heard on the televised broadcast, and blood immediately was visible on Handlogten’s calf.
The arena briefly went silent, with players from both teams returning to their benches to pray.
Florida coach Todd Golden, a former Pearl assistant, was emotional in his postgame interview as he talked about Handlogten.
“You just hate to see it for him because he does everything the right way and works hard,” Golden said. “That’s a super fluky injury, you know, that you don’t see very often in this game. Playing a bigtime game like this, to go out that way, I just feel for him.”
Zyon Pullin led the Gators with 15 points, while Walter Clayton Jr. added 13, Tyrese Samuel 12 and Thomas Haugh 11.