History favored the fourth-ranked Tennessee Volunteers heading into Wednesday night’s matchup with the 11th-ranked Auburn Tigers.

Sure, Auburn had won seven of the previous nine meetings between the two SEC programs, but the Tigers hadn’t been as successful when playing the Volunteers in Knoxville, which was where Wednesday night’s game was played and where Auburn hadn’t won a game since March of 2020.

Meanwhile, Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl entered the night with a 2-4 road record against Tennessee, despite being awfully familiar with Tennessee’s Thompson-Boling Arena as he coached the Vols from 2005-11.

When are Auburn and Tennessee both ranked inside the top 15? The only other time prior to Wednesday was a Tennessee win back in 2000.

On Wednesday night in Knoxville, Auburn’s unfavorable history on the road against Tennessee continued as the Vols topped the Tigers 92-84.

Fifth-year senior forward Jaylin Williams makes his return

Despite a scary-looking knee injury just 11 days ago in Auburn’s (21-7, 10-5 SEC) loss to Kentucky, Auburn fifth-year senior Jaylin Williams made his return to the floor Wednesday night in Knoxville — something Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said could be a possibility.

“Jaylin will travel,” Pearl said during his press conference Tuesday. “And while he was not available for Georgia, it’s possible he could play tomorrow.”

Pearl went on to list Williams’ status as a “game-time decision” on Tuesday.

Come moments before tipoff Wednesday night, Pearl added that Williams was at “no risk for further injury” and that he anticipated the fifth year forward to “play some.”

And while Williams didn’t start Wednesday’s big matchup, it didn’t take long for him to come off the bench as he first checked into the game at the 16:05 mark in the first half.

After three minutes on the floor, Williams made his first points since going down against Kentucky with a made two-point jump shot to give Auburn a narrow, 13-12 lead. Williams went on to sink a three-pointer near the six-minute mark of the first period to bring the Tigers within two points of the Vols.

In his first game back, Williams contributed 20 minutes and tallied 12 points.

Auburn can’t survive Dalton Knecht’s second-half flurry

Bruce Pearl knew Tennessee’s (22-6,12-3 SEC) fifth-year guard Dalton Knecht was going to be a handful for the Tigers.

“He’s going to get his,” Pearl said of Knecht, who entered the matchup as the SEC’s second-leading scorer with an average of 20.1 points per game. “You just don’t want him to go off.”

And in the first half of Wednesday night’s game, though Knecht led all scorers with 12 points, he never went on an absolute heater in the opening period as he went 3-for-4 from the field and 4-for-4 from the free throw line.

Come the second half, however, Knecht began to take over for the Volunteers and, as Pearl would put it, went off.

With 7:33 to play in the game, Tennessee had tacked on 29 points in the second half. Of those, 17 had come from Knecht.

By the game’s end, Knecht was responsible for 27 of the Volunteers’ 48 second-half points and ended his night with 39 points — which tied his previous career high.

Johni Broome’s arrival in the second half not enough for the Tigers

Auburn entered the game trailing Tennessee by four points as the Tigers gave up a last-second three-pointer to the Volunteers to close out the first half.

Then Tennessee went on a five-point run to quickly stretch its lead out to nine points.

But then Auburn junior forward Johni Broome took the reins of the Tigers’ offense and helped the visiting team claw itself back into the game.

After being held to just seven points on a 3-for-6 shooting effort in the first half, Broome made three consecutive buckets in a 65-second span to bring Auburn back within four points of Tennessee.

Ignited by Broome’s efforts, the Tigers went on a 20-6 run in the opening eight minutes of the second half, helping Auburn build an eight-point lead.

Around that point is when Knecht caught fire, overshadowing Broome’s impressive second half.

Broome logged 16 points in the second period, bringing his total to 23. Broome also contributed nine rebounds as he was an eyelash away from recording a double-double.