NASHVILLE – Confetti fell from the rafters at Bridgestone Arena on Sunday afternoon as No. 12 Auburn celebrated its third SEC Tournament championship in program history, beating Florida 86-67 to make it three wins in three days.
With less than a minute to go and the game already in hand, Dylan Cardwell threw down a two-handed slam and drew the foul to put the exclamation point on the victory.
Shortly after, the pro-Auburn crowd began chanting, "It's great to be an Auburn Tiger."
"Winning the championship this year means even more because the league was so good," Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said. "We've won a few of these. I think this one is the most special. Maybe it's because it's in my 10th year here at Auburn or because the bond that this team had. I wanted it really badly for these guys. Or maybe just the fact that this league was that good. I'm proud of my team."
It was another dominant performance from First Team All-SEC selection Johni Broome who finished with a game-high 19 points and 11 rebounds and was named Most Valuable Player for the tournament after averaging 15.7 points per game over the three games.
"We're playing for a coach, BP, the staff we have, the players that we have, the bond that we have, the chemistry that we have – it just makes it more special," Broome said. "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."
For Broome, it was his 13th double-double of the season, his 25th straight game in double figures, and he surpassed 2,000 career points during the second half.
"I thought Johni Broome was particularly locked in today," Pearl said. "He didn't have a great game yesterday. We talked about it a little bit. He was accountable for it. I think he kind of learned from it. We hung in there together. He's shown great leadership."
Broome also made the All-Tournament Team along with teammate Chad Baker-Mazara who scored 10 points in Sunday's championship game and got the Tigers rolling early with a stepback 3-pointer from the corner in the opening minutes.
Auburn led 38-30 at the half, but Florida made a run early in the second half to cut the deficit to one. The Gators had a chance to take the lead with a 3-pointer, but the shot missed and it was as close as they would get. Despite grabbing the offensive rebound, Chris Moore got a steal and went coast-to-coast for a layup to ignite a 10-0 Tigers' run.
Tre Donaldson buried a deep 3-pointer on Auburn's next possession. Then, Donaldson got a steal on the other end and threw it ahead to Denver Jones for a dunk. After a Florida timeout, Donaldson came out and knocked down another 3 to make it 55-44.
"It was big for us," Donaldson said. "I feel like that's my job coming off the bench – being that spark, being that leader off the bench. Coming into the game, I just wanted to change the game. I didn't how I was going to do it, but I planned on doing it somehow. That's what I did."
Donaldson, or "Tourney Tre" as his teammates call him, finished with eight points and a team-high four assists.
Jones kept the run going with five quick points, making a tough basket inside and then connecting on a 3-pointer from the wing. He scored 7 of his 11 points during that two-minute stretch midway through the second half. The FIU transfer has now scored in double figures in 10 of his last 14 games.
"Denver Jones could have easily been on that All-Tournament Team," Pearl said. "Do not sleep on Denver Jones. I told him after the game, 'Thank you for your patience.' He was the leading scorer in his conference a year ago. He's our best defensive guard. There are lots of things he could do better, but he can really score. He's playing great right now."
Cardwell, Moore and Chaney Johnson all chipped in seven points off the bench and made big baskets at different points of the game. Cardwell led the way in blocks with four, and the Tigers set a program SEC Tournament record with 10 blocks against Florida.
Sunday's win was Auburn's 27th victory of the season, which is third-most in school history and matches the 1998-99 team for the most wins entering the NCAA Tournament.
It was also Pearl's 200th victory in 10 seasons at Auburn, making him the second head coach in program history to record 200 career victories, joining Joel Eaves who won 213 games in 14 seasons from 1949-63.
"He's one of the best coaches, if not the best coach, in college basketball," Broome said. "To me he's the best coach I ever had. He's a player's coach. He can relate to you. We've had plenty of conversations, not about basketball. He wants to see how the family is doing. Basketball-wise, you can talk to him as well. If I have a problem with something or he sees a problem, we have a good relationship. We can talk.
"I feel like that's why I came to Auburn. Now we're SEC champs."
FLORIDA POSTGAME NOTES
» Auburn defeated Florida 86-67 Sunday at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena to claim the program's third SEC Tournament title and the second under head coach Bruce Pearl (2019).
» The win is the Tigers' 27th victory of the season, which is third-most in school history and matches the 1998-99 Tigers for the most wins in program history entering the NCAA Tournament.
» The win is Pearl's 200th victory in his 10 seasons at Auburn, making him the second head coach in program history to record 200 career victories, joining Joel Eaves who won 213 games in 14 seasons from 1949-63. It is Pearl's 10th SEC Tournament win while at Auburn, which is one behind Sonny Smith for the most in program history.
» Auburn leads Florida 92-83 all-time after the Tigers and Gators split a pair of games this season. Auburn leads the series 5-4 in SEC Tournament games, including 2-0 under Pearl. The Tigers have beaten Florida in all three of their SEC Tournament championship runs, defeating the Gators 43-42 in the 1985 semifinals and 65-62 in the 2019 semifinals.
» Bruce Pearl is 13-13 against Florida in his head coaching career, including 5-8 coaching Auburn. Against the Gators, Pearl is 8-3 at home (3-2 at Auburn), 3-9 on the road (0-6 coaching Auburn) and 2-1 in neutral-site games (2-0 coaching Auburn). He is 2-0 against Florida in the SEC Tournament as his only previous SEC Tournament game against the Gators was a 65-62 Auburn victory in the 2019 semifinals.
» Pearl is 2-1 against second-year Florida head coach Todd Golden, including 1-0 in the SEC Tournament.
» Auburn is 33-40 (.452) in the SEC Tournament since its renewal in 1979. Overall, the Tigers are 37-57 (.394) in the tournament.
» Auburn shot 50.8 percent (31-of-61) from the floor in the win. The Tigers are 12-0 this season when shooting at least 50.0 percent. It is the fifth time in the last six games Auburn has shot 50.0 percent. The Tigers shot 50.0 percent (90-of-180) in all three of their SEC Tournament wins.
» Auburn held Florida to a season-low 1-of-13 from 3-point range. The Gators' previous low this season was four 3-pointers against LSU on Feb. 13. The Tigers also held Florida to a season-low-tying 30 first-half points (vs. Merrimack on Dec. 5) and the Gators' 67 points were one off their season low (at Tennessee on Jan. 16 and at Texas A&M on Feb. 3).
» Auburn blocked a program SEC Tournament record 10 shots in the title game, breaking the Tigers' previous record of nine blocks against South Carolina in 2014. It is the fourth time this season Auburn has blocked double-digit shots in a game.
» Four different Tigers blocked a shot on Sunday: Dylan Cardwell (4), Johni Broome (3), Jaylin Williams (2) and Chaney Johnson (1). Cardwell is fifth in Auburn history with 157 career blocks, while Broome is tied with Walker Kessler and Korvotney Barber for sixth with 155. Broome's 77 blocks this season are tied with Mamadou N'diaye (1998-99) for sixth on Auburn's single-season blocked shots list.
» SEC Tournament MVP Johni Broome led Auburn with 19 points and 10 rebounds and recorded his 59th career double-double and his 13th this season. Broome was 7-of-10 from the floor and 5-of-7 from the free-throw line, and he added three blocks in the win. It was his 25th straight game scoring in double figures. It was Broome's 15th game with at least three blocks this season, including Auburn's wins in the SEC Tournament semifinals and title game.
» Denver Jones added 11 points on 4-of-9 field goals, including 1-of-3 from long range, and 2-of-3 from the foul line to go with one rebound and one assist. It is Jones' 10th game in double figures over the last 14 games. He is shooting 51.4 percent from deep over his last nine games.
» SEC All-Tournament selection Chad Baker-Mazara chipped in 10 points, two assists, one steal and one rebound in Sunday's win. Baker-Mazara has 20 double-figure scoring games this season, including 11 in his last 14 contests.
» Chris Moore scored seven points on 3-of-3 field goals, and he added a season-high six rebounds, two assists and one steal. Moore scored 18 points in three SEC Tournament games, which matched his total in Auburn's 17 regular-season SEC games.
» Tre Donaldson recorded a season-high three steals as Auburn registered nine steals on the day. Seven different Tigers recorded a steal in the game.