NASHVILLE — Auburn basketball took Mississippi State's best punch.

The Tigers, wobbled by the right hook the Bulldogs threw to open a chippy game that featured five technical fouls, fell behind by as many as eight points early in the Saturday semifinals of the SEC Tournament in Bridgestone Arena. It was a flurry of turnovers that hurt Auburn in the first half, as the Tigers gave the ball away six times in the first seven minutes.

But Auburn survived Mississippi State's run and captained a swing of its own to tie the game at halftime. It was close from there, but the No. 4 seed Tigers never trailed again and did enough late to stave off the upset-hunting No. 9 Bulldogs 73-66.

Auburn (26-7) has advanced to the SEC Tournament championship for the fifth time in program history and the first time since it won it all on the way to the Final Four in 2019. Bruce Pearl joins Sonny Smith as the only coaches to lead the Tigers to multiple SEC title games.

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No shortage of technical fouls in Auburn basketball vs. Mississippi State in SEC Tournament

A physical contest was expected — Auburn and Mississippi State (21-13) entered with top-20 defenses nationally — and that's exactly what fans saw. The first of five technical fouls was called on MSU forward Keshawn Murphy for pushing Chad Baker-Mazara.

Baker-Mazara was involved in an after-the-whistle altercation that earned him and DJ Jeffries a double tech, and KD Johnson and Dashawn Davis were each assessed techs in the first half for exchanging words.

Offensive rebounding

The Bulldogs had a physical advantage inside with Tolu Smith and Cam Matthews in the front court, and they put that to use by securing 12 offensive rebounds in the first half alone. The Tigers went into the break with 10 total rebounds before returning the favor and outrebounding Mississippi State by four in the second half.

Point guards strive in different ways

Aden Holloway and Tre Donaldson provided different things, but each was valuable. Holloway dished six assists and added two steals while Donaldson poured in 10 points off the bench.

What's next?

The Tigers will play in the championship game of the SEC Tournament on Sunday (Noon CT, ESPN).

Richard Silva is the Auburn athletics beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Auburn basketball survives Mississippi State in chippy SEC Tournament