AUBURN — Auburn gymnastics wasn't going to stroll into Saturday the easy way.

No, postseason is never that simple, especially for a team without experience. The Tigers set obstacles in their own way. Their first gymnast to compete on floor and vault in Thursday's NCAA regional scored low, leaving no margin for error. Those were the individual scores that Auburn dropped from each event. Then star freshman Suni Lee went to the locker room between rotations after a shaky vault landing.

But Auburn coach Jeff Graba's mantra rang true: "You don't have to be faster than the bear. You've got to be faster than your friends."

The seventh-seeded Tigers were faster than two of their friends, eliminating Georgia and Southern Utah with a 197.5 team score that advances them to the Sweet 16.

"Thank goodness that's over," Graba said. "That's my opening and closing statement."

Now Auburn likely must catch Thursday's proverbial bear, Kentucky, in the regional final Saturday (5 p.m., ESPN+) at Neville Arena with a spot in the NCAA Championships on the line.

For a moment, Lee was the focus of home crowd concern.

During a prolonged respite between the second and third rotations, Auburn passed the time with a game of "Heads Up!" in which everyone held pieces of paper to their foreheads, guessing what was written on the paper. Meanwhile, Lee was off the side after her 9.825 vault. Graba followed her to the locker room.

"Physically, yeah, she landed bad on her one-touch," Graba said.

When she emerged from the locker room, she was on deck for her uneven bars routine. All eyes were on the Olympic gold medalist.

"She's in a really good spot if we can keep her healthy," Graba said. "She's just a competitor."

During Lee's round of high-fives with teammates, her score came back: 9.95. One judge gave her a 10. The smile was back.

She followed it with a 9.975 on beam, winning that event and finishing second all-around (39.65).

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It was going to be that kind of day from the beginning. 

Aria Brusch and Drew Watson both scored 9.775 on floor to start the meet. The Tigers recovered with 9.9s from Lee and fellow freshman Sophia Groth, setting up senior Derrian Gobourne's usual floor theatrics — this time, a ho-hum 9.95. Still, keeping a 9.775 was damaging, as Auburn's floor score was only its eighth-best.

"This is what you try to tell them postseason's like, but until you experience it, you don't understand it," Graba said. "So I think it hit them like a ton of bricks early."

Team scores are supposed to improve throughout the season, but the Tigers matched only their fifth-best vault score (49.35), saved by Cassie Stevens' second-place 9.925. She said her warmup went poorly, but added, "I've gotten to the point where I don't need to panic in situations like that. I know what changes to make."

Her composed response was representative of the team's throughout a bad meet.

Auburn had to drop a 9.7 from Groth on bars, finishing with the team's fourth-lowest score in that event (49.3). But the beam finale was a bounce-back, with an above-average 49.475.

"Some stuff in warmups didn't go our way, and obviously some stuff in competition," Stevens said, "Everyone powered through. It might not have been their A routine, but it was B routine or C routine, and they made it work."

The Wildcats were feeling it from the start. They finished with their second-highest score of the season on bars (49.525), floor (49.575) and vault (49.4), plus their highest on beam (49.3).

Now Kentucky enters Saturday with extra momentum. Raena Worley defeated Lee for first place in the all-around competition with a 39.7, winning vault. Another SEC rival, Georgia, watched its season end with a 195.725, finishing last behind Southern Utah.