NASHVILLE | Jared Harper scored 19 of his 27 points in the second half to lead No. 5 seed Auburn to a 73-64 win over No 4 seed South Carolina in the quarterfinals of the 2019 SEC Tournament at Bridgestone Arena.
The Tigers advance to the semifinals for the 13th time in school history and first time since 2015 where they will match up against No. 8 seed Florida, which upset No. 1 seed LSU 76-73 earlier Friday.
Auburn, which improves to 24-9 on the season, also avenges an 80-77 loss at South Carolina Jan. 22. AU has won six consecutive games.
The Tigers used a late 18-7 run to break open a tight game and go up by 12 points on an emphatic alley-oop dunk by Chuma Okeke. South Carolina made just two field goals during a 6:37 stretch late in the second half.
"I feel like the defense late in the game, we ended up putting together a lot of stops back-to-back-to-back," Bryce Brown told the Auburn Network. "At that point it just came down to making shots and that’s when we took off. Jared Harper did a great job getting to the foul line."
Foul trouble limited Okeke to just four points in five minutes, but Danjel Purifoy came off the bench to score six points and grab five rebounds including a key 3-pointer to help spark the late run.
Bryce Brown added 19 points and Samir Doughty came off the bench to add 10 points, five rebounds and three steals. Auburn's bench out-scored South Carolina's 23-2.
"Danjel came in and gave us very meaningful minutes," assistant coach Steven Pearl told the Auburn Network. "Our bench made meaningful plays for us. Samir Doughty played fantastic, just played beautiful basketball."
Chris Silva led the Gamecocks with 27 points and 11 rebounds as the senior totaled 59 points and 25 rebounds in two games against the Tigers.
Saturday’s semifinal game against Florida is scheduled for noon CT on ESPN.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Jared Harper shot 6 of 13 from the floor including 3 of 8 from 3-point range to total 27 points, the second-most he’s scored this season. He added six rebounds, six assists and three turnovers in 34 minutes. Harper made 12 of 14 free throws.
PLAY OF THE GAME: Late in the first half, Bryce Brown hit a 3-pointer, stole the inbound pass and then found Jared Harper for a 3-pointer as the Tigers scored six points in 10 seconds.
STAT OF THE DAY: Auburn made 13 3-pointers in the game to bring its season-total to 368, the most in single-season SEC history and surpassing Arkansas’ 361 in 1995. The Razorbacks were the national runner-up that season.
QUOTE OF THE DAY: Assistant coach Steven Pearl on Jared Harper via the Auburn Network: "He’s special. Second half, Coach was asking, ‘What should we run?’ I just told Coach put all four guys on the baseline and let him go. They didn’t have anyone on their team that could keep him in front. When he got downhill he either got fouled, was able to make a shot or find open guys."
