Nate Ament, Tennessee use strong start to hold off Auburn

Nate Ament notched 22 points and eight rebounds and Tennessee led wire-to-wire Saturday night in a 77-69 defeat of Auburn in Knoxville, Tenn.

The freshman forward missed 12 of his 16 field-goal attempts but went 12-of-15 from the free-throw line as the Volunteers (15-6, 5-3 Southeastern Conference) drained 25 of 31 free throws (80.6%) and dominated the Tigers (14-8, 5-4) in rebounding, 46-30.

Jaylen Carey totaled 13 points and eight rebounds, while top scorer Ja'Kobi Gillespie had 11 points and five assists. DeWayne Brown II produced 10 points, seven boards and four assists for the Volunteers.

Tennessee moved to 52-9 at home against the Tigers.

Auburn's Keyshawn Hall tallied 21 points and Tahaad Pettiford had 11 points and seven assists, as the team lost for the first time in five games.

In a hot start, Gillespie, Bishop Boswell and Ament hit deep balls early as the Volunteers made 5 of 7 shots from the field to help create a 13-4 lead just under four minutes into the game.

Tennessee opened a double-digit lead less than five minutes in on another Ament three, and the margin grew to 13 during a 9-0 run which made it 27-14 with 9:02 left in the half.

The Volunteers pushed the lead to 16 points on Carey's banked jumper with 5:22 left, but Auburn's Kevin Overton converted a four-point play in the final seconds to leave it a manageable 41-31 at the halftime break.

Carey and Ament led with 11 points apiece as Tennessee held a 25-14 rebounding advantage.

Sebastian Williams-Adams and Overton made three-point plays to trim the visitors' deficit to six, 43-37, less than two minutes into the second half.

Pettiford connected on Auburn's second four-point play to slash it to 49-44 with 13:35 left as Gillespie battled foul trouble.

An alley-oop slam by Elyjah Freeman made it a four-point game, 53-49, but Boswell's steal and layup rebuilt the 10-point cushion just past the midway point.

Auburn kept chipping away and trailed by just six points, 72-66, with 1:55 left, yet Brown, Ament and Gillespie canned five foul shots between them to give the Volunteers their third straight victory.