Feb. 7, 2009
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AUBURN---Korvotney Barber's game-winning layup with four seconds to play on a Tay Waller assist gave Auburn a 78-77 victory over Tennessee Saturday in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum. Rasheem Barrett totaled 27 points and seven rebounds and Barber added 21 points making all eight field goal attempts to go along with eight rebounds to lead the Tigers.
Tennessee (14-8, 5-3) held a 77-76 lead and Lucas Hargrove, a 61.5 percent foul shooter, was at the free throw line for a pair of shots with 16 seconds to play. Hargrove missed the first and the second barely grazed the front of the rim. Barrett grabbed the offense rebound and was trapped close to the far corner when Auburn head coach Jeff Lebo called a timeout with 13 seconds left.
The Volunteers, one of the best teams in the country defending out of bounds plays, nearly intercepted DeWayne Reed's long inbounds pass to halfcourt. Tennessee's Wayne Chism battled Barrett for the ball at midcourt causing both to fall to the floor, and Waller picked up the loose ball.
Waller dribbled past halfcourt to right in front of the Auburn bench and found his former Manchester (Ga.) High teammate, Barber, open under the basket for the game-winner.
'I thought it was a heck of a basketball game,' Lebo said. 'Korvotney Barber and Rasheem Barrett were unbelievable, making play after play after play. We pulled it out there at the end against a good Tennessee team, so a lot of plays were important, obviously, but nothing more important than the last play.
'Tay Waller was really under control. I was worried that he was going to take a quick one there and jack it up, but he did a great job finding Barber. Just like he did in high school I guess, that kind of layup. It was a great win for our guys.'
Auburn (14-9, 3-5) jumped out to a quick lead at 15-6 and still held a 40-32 edge with four minutes before halftime. Tennessee closed it out with a 9-3 run to trail only 43-41 at halftime. Barrett scored 18 first half points on 9-of-12 shooting from the field to lead Auburn, and Hargrove scored all 10 of his points in the first 20 minutes.
Josh Tabb's layup to start the second half allowed the Vols to tie the score for the first time and then Scotty Hopson nailed a 3-pointer to give Tennessee its first lead of the game at 52-53 with 15:23 remaining. The game would then have 11 more lead changes the rest of the way.
The Vols took their largest lead at 62-56 with 12:59 left, and Auburn answered with a 9-2 run to regain the lead at 65-64 after Barber, a 42.2 percent foul shooter, made both foul shots with 9:15 to play. Tennessee built the margin back up to four points three more times with the last being at 75-71 on a Chism layup at the three minute mark.
A Reed jumper and a huge Waller 3-pointer from the top of the key with 1:10 to play put Auburn back ahead at 76-75. Tennessee called a timeout with a minute to play to set up Tyler Smith's layup from J.P. Prince with 38 seconds left. That set up the dramatic finish.
'We didn't know how it was going to work out at the end,' said Barber on his game-winning layup. 'It just happened to work like it did. Tay Waller was able to give me a good pass inside, and I was able to make the shot. I have no idea how I was that open, I just saw the opening and I took it.
'It showed a lot of maturity coming off of the big loss to Ole Miss. We just forgot about that (Ole Miss) game and thought about tonight, and we were able to knock down one of the best teams in the SEC.'
Senior Quantez Robertson was late for the game and was held out of the starting lineup to end his streak of starting all 112 games played in his career at Auburn. Playing a career-low nine minutes, Robertson would have become Auburn's first-ever four-year player to start every game of his career.
'I found out when I got to the gym that I wouldn't be starting,' Robertson said. 'There wasn't anything that I could do about it, but I am just glad we got the win. It isn't just about me, it's about the team and that's what we did. We went out there as a team and got the victory.'
Auburn outrebounded Tennessee 34-21 and Tennessee came into the game leading the SEC averaging 14.3 offensive rebounds a game. The Vols only had four offensive rebounds while the Tigers had 14 offensive boards and outscored Tennessee 19-2 in second chance points. Barrett led Auburn with four offensive rebounds, and had the biggest one of the game with 13 seconds remaining.
'When I saw that ball bounce off the rim, I thought to myself, 'It's do or die. We are not going to lose this game without getting another possession.'
Reed added 11 points for Auburn but only went 3-of-14 from the field and 1-of-8 from 3-point range, and Waller had eight points, three steals and two assists while making 2-of-5 three-point attempts.
Smith led Tennessee with 21 points, and Prince added 18 points with the help of going 8-of-9 from the free throw line. Hopson made 4-of-5 three-pointers en route to 14 points and Chism added 11 points and six rebounds.
Auburn shot 53.7 percent (29-of-54) from the field, 26.3 percent (5-of-19) from 3-point range and 62.5 percent (15-of-24) from the foul line. Tennessee shot 59.2 percent (29-of-49) from the floor, 39.1 percent (9-of-23) from behind the arc and 58.8 percent (10-of-17) from the foul line.
Auburn, which ended its two-year streak of losing 13 straight games to SEC Eastern Division teams, plays the second game in a three-game homestand Wednesday at 7 pm Central as it goes for its first season sweep of Arkansas (13-8, 1-7) since 2003. The Tigers close out the homestand against Mississippi State (16-7, 6-2) on Valentine's Day next Saturday at 4 pm Central.