Rick Barnes: Olivier Nkamhoua 'stayed vertical' on final shot in Tennessee's win over Auburn

IMG_3593by:Grant Ramey•02/04/23•

GrantRamey

The play unfolded right in front of Auburn coach Bruce Pearl. His Tigers trailed No. 2 Tennessee by three points on the final possession of the game, when Wendell Green Jr. fired a long 3-point attempt with three seconds left. 

On the way down the Auburn guard made contact with Tennessee senior forward Olivier Nkamhoua, falling down and looking around for a foul to be called. No whistle blew, the Vols grabbed the rebound and the game was over. 

Looking for answers, Pearl followed the officiating crew across the floor and toward the tunnel. He never got one, though.

“No, no, no explanation,” Pearl said after Tennessee’s 46-43 win Saturday afternoon.

“Very disappointed at the end of the game,” Pearl added. “Very disappointed.”

Earlier in the second half, from a similar spot on the floor, Green was given a flop warning after looking to draw contact on a 3-point attempt.

Green addressed the final sequence on Twitter afterward.

“I respect all referees just like I respect all people” he wrote, “…But What could you possibly have been looking at?”

Tennessee (19-4, 8-2 SEC) got 15 points and 14 rebounds from Josiah-Jordan James, Nkamhoua scored nine points and Santiago Vescovi had seven in the win. The Vols shot just 27.0 percent from the floor and 9.5 percent from the 3-point line.

Auburn (17-5, 7-3) shot just 23.6 percent from the floor and 11.1 percent from the 3-point line, led by Johni Broome’s 11 points and nine rebounds. KD Johnson scored 10 points.

The Vols led by eight with 5:25 left, after a James jumper in the paint, but Auburn answered with a 6-0 run. Green hit a transition three with 32 seconds left to get the Tigers back within three points and Broome scored out of a timeout with 18 seconds left, after Vescovi turned it over with 23 seconds to go. 

Zakai Zeigler made two free throws with 16 seconds left to get the lead back to three, after the Broome bucket, setting up the final possession.

Pearl seemingly made reference to the officiating crew being influenced by the Tennessee crowd with no call on the final play.

“I don’t think we were affected at all by the environment, which was great,” Pearl said, before pausing. “We weren’t affected by the environment.”

Rick Barnes didn’t have an opinion on the sequence during his postgame press conference, saying he had not yet seen a replay. 

“It looked like, where I was standing, ‘O’ was straight up,” Barnes said of Nkamhoua. “The rule is, like when the call on Santi early or I think Zakai, anything you go from Point A to Point B, it’s a foul. Anytime you go from Point B to Point A, it’s a foul. 

“Then there’s that neutral area there. I guess, the official right there (thought) ‘O’ stayed vertical. But I haven’t seen it.”

Up Next: No. 2 Tennessee at Vanderbilt, Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET, SEC Network

Zeigler was called for a foul on Green on a 3-point shot in the first half. Vescovi made a three and was fouled with 2:33 left in the second half. 

“It’s the most disappointing loss of the year,” Pearl said. “Had a chance to beat the No. 2 team in the country.”

For Tennessee, it was a bounce-back win after the 67-54 loss at Florida on Wednesday, when the Vols shot just 27.9 percent from the field, going 19-for-68, including 5-for-25 from the 3-point line. 

“I think a game like that shows a lot of character,” James said of the win over Auburn, “how you respond when you’re not making shots. I feel like we responded really well on the defensive end unlike what we did against Florida when shots weren’t falling. 

“I think we learned a lot from that game. Many lessons were learned.”

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