The NCAA males’s match woes for the Southeastern Convention continued Friday. No. 4 seed Auburn was shocked by No. 13 seed Yale 78-76 of their first-round recreation within the East Regional. The upset got here sooner or later after No. 3 seed Kentucky was surprised by Oakland.
John Poulakidas paced the Bulldogs with a career-high 28 factors because the Ivy League champions overcame a seven-point halftime deficit. Poulakidas made six 3-pointers on the day, together with a go-ahead, 3-pointer with 2 minutes left.
Auburn had an opportunity to take the lead within the last minute, however Denver Jones missed the entrance finish of a 1-and-1. Danny Wolf then made two free throws to push Yale’s result in three with 45 seconds left.
The Tigers acquired again inside two, and Tre Donaldson had two free throws with 6.1 seconds left to tie the sport. Donaldson missed each. Auburn was capable of rebound the second miss and had a number of pictures to tie or take the lead in a wild last seconds, together with a 3-pointer by Okay.D. Johnson on the buzzer.
“We caught collectively at this time and it was a full-team effort,” Poulakidas stated. “I do know I led us in scoring, however all people made contributions. It wasn’t a one-man present tonight.”
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The Bulldogs, taking part in of their fourth match in seven seasons, superior to the second spherical for the second time. They defeated Baylor within the first spherical in 2016.
The defeat was one other match disappointment for Auburn, which misplaced within the second around the previous two seasons. The have been hampered by the lack of guard Chad Baker-Mazara, who was ejected for committing a Flagrant 2 foul simply three minutes into the sport. Baker-Mazara entered the sport averaging 10.3 factors per recreation.
The SEC entered the match with eight groups, however solely Tennessee has superior with Texas A&M and Alabama but to finish their openers.