Korvotney Barber, Rasheem Barrett and Quantez Robertson sat behind the microphones at Saturday’s postgame press conference, recollecting on the game’s final play as if it happened 10 years ago.

Each player had a different view, a different role and a completely different opinion of what transpired to push the Tigers past Tennessee, 78-77, before 6,321 fans at Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum.

There weren’t many points where the trio of seniors could pinpoint specifics, but their opinion of the aftermath was unanimous.

It sure was crazy.

“I think my heart skipped a beat,” Barrett said.

Barber played one of the biggest roles, taking a Tay Waller pass wide open in the paint for the game-winning layup with 4.3 seconds to play, but the chaotic seconds before and after pretty much involved everyone.

“We didn’t know how it was going to work out at the end,” Barber said. “It just happened to work like it did.”

DeWayne Reed had the dubious role of the inbound passer with 10.4 seconds to play and the Tigers trailing by a point. All game long, Auburn struggled on inbounding the ball, as it had to “freelance” a variety of plays because Tennessee is the best in the conference at defending them, coach Jeff Lebo said.

Often, Auburn deferred to the final, “Hail Mary” option, launching the ball well behind the half-court line. And with lanky 6-foot-7 forward J.P. Prince inches from his face, Reed tossed the ball up for grabs between Waller and Tennessee’s 6-foot-9 center Wayne Chism behind the half-court line right near Tennessee’s bench.

“I thought (Chism) had it,” Tennessee coach Bruce Pearl said.

Waller ripped the ball away as Chism’s momentum took him toward the opposite basket and out of the play. Waller, who has taken plenty of questionable shots in his first season at Auburn, pushed the ball toward the corner before spotting a wide-open Barber underneath the hoop.

“Tay Waller was really under control,” Lebo said. “I thought he would take a quick one and jack it up.”

Tennessee, without any more timeouts, was forced to push and shoot on the fly. Prince got the final look, an awkward jumper just inside the 3-point arc that clanged off the back rim.

Seconds later, Auburn players stormed to the center of the court. Reed chucked the game ball well into the stands, as Hargrove jumped around for a bit with the Lebo Lunatics.

“I thought it was a heck of a basketball game,” Lebo said. “It was a great game to watch if you were a fan, obviously.”

Auburn could have maybe made the final seconds less exciting, but a number of missed free throws, again, forced it to work harder for its first win against an SEC East opponent since Jan. 31, 2007.

None were more painful than Hargrove’s back-to-back misses with 16 seconds to play and the Tigers still behind by a point.

His second barely hit the front of the rim, but Barrett came up with the rebound — Auburn’s 14th offensive board of the game — to maintain possession. Tennessee, meanwhile, had just four and was out-rebounded by the significantly smaller Tigers, 34-21.

“I saw that ball and I thought right away coach was not going to yell at me anymore for offensive rebounds,” said Barrett, who finished with 27 points, two shy of the career-high he set last Saturday against Vanderbilt.

Barrett led a rejuvenated Auburn offense, which came out hot and nearly matched the sharpshooting Volunteers shot for shot. The game featured 12 lead changes and five ties and didn’t have a deficit larger than 6 the entire second half.

And the Tigers did it with the distraction of another player showing up late to the game hanging over their heads. One week after Reed played just three minutes because he was late to the Vanderbilt loss, Robertson missed his first start in 112 games for the same reason.

“He said ‘barber shop,’” Lebo said. “But late is late.”

Auburn’s Barber finished with 21 points and eight rebounds and made all eight of his field goal attempts — none bigger than his last.

“It was huge,” Lebo said. “There is no doubt about it. It was a huge game for us.”

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