Johni Broome had 23 points and 15 rebounds and No. 3 Auburn held off Ole Miss 62-57 in a quarterfinal of the Southeastern Conference tournament on Friday afternoon in Nashville.
Denver Jones added 13 points for the top-seeded Tigers (28-4), who will face No. 8 Tennessee in a semifinal on Saturday afternoon. Tennessee, the tourney’s fourth seed, defeated Texas later on Friday.
Dre Davis and Sean Pedulla each scored 12 points and Jaylen Murray and Malik Dia added 10 apiece to lead the eighth-seeded Rebels (22-11).
Broom’s layup started the second-half scoring and gave Auburn a 31-22 lead. Ole Miss scored the next six points, but Miles Kelly made a jumper and a 3-pointer to push the lead to eight.
The Tigers led by eight on four more occasions before three layups by Pedulla and a jumper by Davis helped the Rebels pull even at 46. Chaney Johnson broke the tie by making a 3-pointer that ended a nearly six-minute field-goal drought for Auburn.
Jaemyn Brakefield made a free throw for Ole Miss, but Broome followed with a three-point play and a layup and Jones added a three-point play that gave the Tigers a 57-47 lead with three minutes left.
Davon Barnes made two free throws and Dia had a dunk that ended a more than four-minute field-goal drought for the Rebels. Chad Baker-Mazara’s three-point play extended the lead to nine with 1:34 left.
Pedulla’s steal and layup were part of a 6-0 run that trimmed the lead to three with 38 seconds left, but Broome made a jumper with 11 seconds left.
The score was tied twice and the fifth lead change occurred when Auburn took the lead for the remainder of the first half, 15-14, on two free throws by Broome. The Tigers increased the lead to six points before Murray made a layup.
Two more free throws by Broome and a 3-pointer by Tahaad Pettiford gave Auburn its biggest lead of the half, 27-18. Ole Miss got within five points before Jones made a jumper to give the Tigers a 29-22 halftime lead.
–Field Level Media
