Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Auburn beats No. 23 Tennessee 94-84 for 11th straight win

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Auburn coach Bruce Pearl downplayed the personal impact of earning his first win at Tennessee since his own six-year stint with the Volunteers.

He preferred to discuss the giant step his new team took in earning its 11th straight victory.

Bryce Brown and Jared Harper each scored 18 points Tuesday night as Auburn erased an early 14-point deficit to beat No. 23 Tennessee 94-84 in its Southeaste­rn Conference opener. Auburn (13-1, 1-0 SEC) extended its longest winning streak since a 14-game run in 1999-2000.

“I’m celebratin­g it because we got a road win against a nationally ranked team with an Auburn program that hasn’t been very good in a while,” said Pearl, who coached Tennessee to six straight NCAA Tournament appearance­s from 2006-11 before getting fired amid an NCAA investigat­ion. “That’s why it’s a big win.”

Pearl owns a 2-4 record against the Vols as Auburn’s coach, including a 1-2 mark at Thompson-Boling Arena. He’s in his fourth season at Auburn and trying to help the Tigers earn their first NCAA Tournament berth since 2003.

Auburn hasn’t finished above 11th in the SEC standings in each of Pearl’s first three seasons but has garnered some respect with its fast start this year.

“To be honest with you, we actually expected to do this,” Brown said. “We knew we were going to have a lot of people doubt us, but this is what we expected. This is what we wanted to do, and this is our goal. We wanted to open up people’s eyes. Hopefully we did that today.”

Tennessee (9-4, 0-2) squandered an early 2814 lead and has lost two straight games for the first time this season. Tennessee coach Rick Barnes said his team got outworked and was “awful” defensivel­y.

“I think we’re too casual,” Barnes said. “I thought tonight we played like a very casual, immature basketball team.”

Auburn withstood a career-high 25 points from Tennessee’s Lamonte Turner, who made all 13 of his free-throw attempts before fouling out. Grant Williams added 22 points, Jordan Bone had 18 and Admiral Schofield scored 13 for Tennessee.

Mustapha Heron scored 16 and Chuma Okeke added 11 for Auburn. Horace Spencer had 10 points and nine rebounds.

In a game that featured 10 lead changes in the second half alone, Auburn heated up from 3-point range to pull away down the stretch.

Auburn had missed its first nine 3-point shots of the second half before making five of its last six attempts from beyond the arc. Four of those 3-pointers came during a 2½-minute span that essentiall­y decided the game.

Brown sank the first 3-pointer to extend Auburn’s lead to 69-65 with 5:48 left. Williams converted a convention­al three-point play to cut the margin to 69-68 with 5:26 remaining, but Auburn continued its 3-point flurry during an 11-0 run that put the game away.

On Saturday, Auburn hosts No. 22 Arkansas while Tennessee hosts No. 17 Kentucky.

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