Tennessee's SEC regular season championship hopes now rest on Vanderbilt beating LSU tonight. The Vols missed an opportunity to clinch a share of the title by losing on the road at Auburn, 84-80.
Chuma Okeke lead the Tigers with 22 points on 9-14 shooting.
Grant Williams had a game-high 25 points on 8-12 shooting and made 9-10 free throws.
Auburn's Anfernee McLemore was called for a flagrant foul with 23.1 seconds left and Auburn up by six. Grant Williams hit both free throws to bring the Vols within four points at 80-76.
On the ensuing Tennessee possession, Williams made a layup off the inbounds pass from Jordan Bone to pull the Vols within two at 80-78 with 20.4 seconds left.
Admiral Schofield fouled Bryce Brown and he made both free throws to push the Auburn lead back to four. That was Schofield's fifth foul, sending him to the bench for the rest of the game.
Bone then missed a three and Jordan Bowden lost the ball out of bounds with 6.8 seconds left.
Tennessee shot 40 percent from the field in the second half while Auburn made 54.2 percent of its second half shots.
The Tigers scored 19 points off 13 Tennessee turnovers.
Tennessee led 41-35 at halftime behind 12 points from Bowden. The Vols shot 54.8% in the first half. Auburn started the game 4-7 from three-point range, closed out the first half just 2-11 from long distance, then hit 7-16 triples in the second half.
The Tigers went on a 7-0 run in the first two minutes of the second half to take a 42-41 lead and Schofield headed to the bench with three fouls.
The Vols took the lead back on two Grant Williams free throws, then Williams took a charge on the defensive end and Bowden buried a three at the shot clock buzzer to put Tennessee up four.
The Vols pushed the lead to six but Auburn recaptured the lead at 57-56 on free throws by McLemore with 10:21 left. The teams traded buckets until Auburn went on a 7-0 run to take a 64-59 lead.
Williams brought the Vols within one on a spin move layup and one. He hit the free throw to tie the game at 69 with 4:49 left.
Jared Harper drained a three to put Auburn back up 72-69 with 3:28 left. Harper and Schofield then traded three-pointers to make it 75-72 Auburn.
Samir Doughty's three extended the Tigers lead to 78-72 with 1:13 left, leading up to the final sequence.
Tennessee came into the day tied with LSU for first place in the SEC.
The Vols will need the Tigers to lose to Vanderbilt tonight (8:30 tip on SEC Network) to get a share of the SEC regular season championship. Tennessee will be the number three seed in the SEC Tournament. Kentucky will be the number two seed and LSU will take the top seed regardless of the outcome of tonight's game.
The Wildcats get the two-seed over Tennessee thanks to a deep tie-breaker. It comes down to the fact that Kentucky beat Auburn while the Vols lost to them.
If Vanderbilt can beat LSU tonight, then the Tigers, Tennessee and Kentucky will all share the SEC regular season title. If LSU wins, the Tigers take the championship outright.
SEC Tournament play begins on Wednesday. Tennessee's first game will be Friday.