No. 13 Yale came back from a 10-point second-half deficit to upset No. 4 Auburn 78-76 on Friday after Auburn had myriad chances to tie or take the lead in the final 30 seconds.
The Tigers led 61-51 with 9:53 to go before Yale slowly chipped away at the lead thanks to an Auburn scoring drought. The Tigers went over three minutes without scoring as Auburn cut the lead to four with 4:41 to go.
Yale then took a 73-72 lead with a 3-pointer by John Poulakidas with 2:11 to go. The teams traded missed shots before Poulikidas committed an off-ball foul on Auburn’s Denver Jones with 46 seconds to go.
From there, the Bulldogs hung on. Somehow.
Jones, an 88% free throw shooter, missed the first end of a 1-and-1 before Danny Wolf made two more free throws to extend the lead to three. Auburn had a chance to tie the game with less than 30 seconds to go, but Tre Donaldson’s 3-pointer clanked off the rim.
Then after Yassine Gharram made one of two free throws, Auburn’s K.D. Johnson got fouled as he made a layup with 9.4 seconds to go.
Johnson missed his free throw, but Auburn got the ball via the possession arrow after a tie-up on the rebound.
Tre Donaldson then got fouled under the basket on the inbounds pass and went to the free throw line. He missed both of his free throws … and Auburn got the rebound. Johni Broome missed a putback as he crashed hard to the floor and Jaylin Williams had a shot blocked before time expired.
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