No. 13 seed Yale stuns SEC tournament champion Auburn in another March Madness upset
The NCAA men's tournament woes for the Southeastern Conference continued Friday. No. 4 seed Auburn was shocked by No. 13 seed Yale 78-76 in their first-round game in the East Regional. The upset came one day after No. 3 seed Kentucky was stunned by Oakland.
John Poulakidas paced the Bulldogs with a career-high 28 points as the Ivy League champions overcame a seven-point halftime deficit. Poulakidas made six 3-pointers on the day, including a go-ahead, 3-pointer with 2 minutes left.
Auburn had a chance to take the lead in the final minute, but Denver Jones missed the front end of a 1-and-1. Danny Wolf then made two free throws to push Yale's lead to three with 45 seconds left.
The Tigers got back within two, and Tre Donaldson had two free throws with 6.1 seconds left to tie the game. Donaldson missed both. Auburn was able to rebound the second miss and had multiple shots to tie or take the lead in a wild final seconds, including a 3-pointer by K.D. Johnson at the buzzer.
"We stuck together today and it was a full-team effort," Poulakidas said. "I know I led us in scoring, but everybody made contributions. It wasn't a one-man show tonight."
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The Bulldogs, playing in their fourth tournament in seven seasons, advanced to the second round for the second time. They defeated Baylor in the first round in 2016.
The defeat was another tournament disappointment for Auburn, which lost in the second round the past two seasons. The were hampered by the loss of guard Chad Baker-Mazara, who was ejected for committing a Flagrant 2 foul just three minutes into the game. Baker-Mazara entered the game averaging 10.3 points per game.
The SEC entered the tournament with eight teams, but only Tennessee has advanced with Texas A&M and Alabama yet to complete their openers.