ATLANTA | Tahaad Pettiford came out of the locker room way before the rest of his teammates did following halftime, looking to get up some shots after struggling from the floor in the first half on 2-of-6 shooting and missing all three attempts from behind the arc.

It certainly seemed to do him and his shot some good as the freshman guard went off in the second half for 15 points, helping lead No. 1-seed Auburn to a 78-65 win over No. 5-seed Michigan and a spot in the Elite Eight Sunday against No. 2 seed Michigan State.

‘I hit a couple in a row, so just seeing the ball go in a rim, knowing I was going to take those shots when the game started, just helped a lot,” Pettiford said.

With the Tigers trailing by nine and Auburn’s offense going nowhere, Pettiford hit arguably the biggest shot of his young career: a three from the top of the key to stop the bleeding and give life back to the Tigers. It didn’t come without confusion, though, as Johni Broome thought Auburn was running a different play.

“Obviously, he thought it was another play, so we’re just going back and forth,” Pettiford said. “But then he understood he was wrong, and we’re brothers, we go fight, we go crash head, but he admitted he was wrong, and we just got back on deep and got a stop and ran the next play.”

That basket sparked a 14-0 Auburn run that gave the Tigers the lead for good.

Pettiford was far from done. The Wolverines cut the lead to six, but the New Jersey native drove to his right and finished at the glass to extend it back to eight.

And then … well, Pettiford did some magic. With the shot clock winding down, the guard recovered the ball and hit a three to make the lead 10. On the next possession, with the shot clock dwindling again, he turned around, shot a fadeaway while getting fouled and converted the three-point play.

“He’s just a special player,” Denver Jones said. “Not too many freshmen are built like him. Like I said, some people just got it. Tahaad got it. Very special player, man.”

Pettiford finished with 20 points, 15 coming in the second half. It was precisely what Auburn needed at the moment.

“He does whatever it takes to win,” Broome said. “We need a spark, he gives the spark.”