Broome and Williams combine for 50, Auburn downs Alabama

Auburn is officially sitting atop the SEC standings.

Auburn downed rival Alabama 99-81 and avenged a loss against the Tide from earlier in the season on Wednesday night as forward Jaylin Williams and center Johni Broome combined to score 50 points.

Williams scored 26 points, leading the Tigers, to hand the senior a new career high.

The win improved Auburn’s record to 19-4 overall and 8-2 in the SEC which moved the Tigers into a tie with the Crimson Tide and South Carolina for first place in the conference.

“I felt like going in, this game was clearly the biggest regular season game we’ve had this year because if Alabama gets us this one, they’re two games up on us, and we’re probably not in the championship race and we’d like to still be in it,” said head coach Bruce Pearl.

Auburn and Alabama traded punches throughout the first 15 ½ minutes as each team put together big runs to keep the game close. With Auburn leading 20-18 with 12:23 left in the first half, the Tigers went on a 12-0 run with seven of those points coming from Williams to seemingly create some momentum.

But Auburn’s lead was not sustained as Alabama responded instantly with a 21-7 run of its own to notch the score at 39.

However, after letting its big lead slip away and allowing Alabama to regain momentum, Auburn remained poised and went back to what it had been doing all night: going inside to Broome and Williams. The Tigers in the final 3:30 of the first half went on a 16-2 run to go into the break with a 55-41 lead, a lead that the Tigers did not let out of their hands again.

All 16 points came from Williams and Broome, and the run was capped by a Williams’ windmill dunk for the final points of the half.

“We had an advantage on the inside obviously, with Jaylin Williams and Johni Brroome,” Pearl said. “We were able to handle any of their perimeter pressure and be able to get the ball into certain situations. We could get tight catches, and then obviously, they’d just foul us.”

Alabama committed 33 fouls and had two players foul out in Wednesday’s matchup which led to 50 Auburn free throws, 40 of which were converted. The 50 free throws were the most Auburn has attempted in a game since shooting from the charity stripe 52 times against Vanderbilt in 1954. Auburn was called for 28 fouls which resulted in 33 free-throw attempts for Alabama.

“I know that people are going to look at the stats and go ‘man, it was a free-throw fest,’” Pearl said. “But I mean, we were reaching a little bit, and we were a little handsy on the perimeter and their guards shot a ton of free throws. Then we were pounding the ball inside, and they were just fouling us every time.”

Broome and Williams went to the line a combined 21 times and each made nine free throws. Auburn’s Chad Baker-Mazara also went to the line 11 times and converted eight of his attempts.

Auburn maintained its halftime lead in the second, continuing its approach of getting to the free-throw line. The Tigers only made eight field goals in the second half but still managed to score 44 points in the half, going 27-for-34 from the line in the final 20 minutes.

Auburn especially made its mark on the Tide’s smaller defense from the 13:34 mark of the second half to the 4:37 mark.

With 13:34 remaining, Auburn led 68-50. Over the next nine minutes Auburn scored 23 points, with 21 of those coming from the free-throw line as the Tigers increased their lead to 23 and gave Alabama very little time to spur a comeback.

Auburn eventually emptied its bench with about 1 ½ minutes left to let some of the walk-ons in the game as the Tigers handed a conference loss to Alabama and let a sold-out Neville Arena celebrate.

On deck, Auburn has a road trip to Gainesville, Florida, to face the Florida Gators. Auburn has not won a road game against Florida since 1996. The game will tip off at 2:30 p.m. CST and be televised on SEC Network.