Bruce Pearl’s No. 13 Tigers picked up a win on the road in Columbia, Missouri on Tuesday to clinch a winning record on the road in SEC play, the third team of Pearl’s tenure to do so after defeating Missouri 101-74. Tuesday night's score marks the first time in 30 seasons that Auburn has hit 100 or more points four times in a season.
“Neville Arena deserves a lot of credit,” head coach Bruce Pearl said Tuesday night. “The Jungle deserves a lot of credit for having a great home-court advantage — maybe the best in college basketball. But, sometimes, what comes along with that is we can't win away from Neville Arena. And that's just not been the case.”
Auburn headed into the locker room up just five points on Missouri, who remains winless in league play, at the half. Despite seven different players scoring multiple times, and Chad Baker-Mazara hitting two three-point attempts, the orange and blue Tigers found themselves in a dog fight with Missouri at the break.
“That team has absolutely not packed it in,” Pearl said. “They came out here tonight to beat us. They played inspired basketball. They obviously gave us everything we wanted in the first half.”
Missouri hit four shots from deep and had 15 points courtesy of the charity stripe to keep within striking distance of Auburn. But, with a resurgent second half on both ends of the floor, Pearl’s team left no doubt in the Show Me State.
“I thought we played more unselfishly offensively in the second half,” Pearl said. “We only had, like, six assists in the first half. We finished with 16. Great balance. Almost seven guys in double-digits. We play best when everybody contributes. It was really positive.”
Auburn shot 76% from the field and 66.7% from deep in a second half performance that averaged 1.541 points per possession. It was an all-around team effort with nine players recording seven or more points on the night for the Tigers — five with double-digit performances.
So much of Auburn’s success inside of Mizzou Arena came down low where it more than doubled up Missouri in points in the paint 48-22. All four Tigers who played on the frontline, Johni Broome, Dylan Cardwell, Chaney Johnson and Jaylin Williams, all scored seven or more points as well as all but Williams recording six or more rebounds.
“I can't remember, in my coaching career, having four frontline guys in double figures,” Pearl said. “That's crazy. But we had the advantage on the front line. Their backcourt is really strong. We obviously took advantage.”
While Auburn hit a lot of shots down the stretch of the game, nearly a quarter of its final point total came from foul attempts. Both teams went to the line a combined 64 times during the contest with Missouri shooting 31-of-35 and Auburn shooting 25-of-29 from the charity stripe.
Missouri’s Sean East II led the way with 12 points from the foul line alone with Pearl’s squad seeing a more balanced showing of success with five players shooting perfect from the line.
With the win, Auburn sits at in a tie for third place in the SEC standings with just one game to go in the regular season. The Tigers boast a 12-5 conference record, 23-7 overall, with just a matchup with the Georgia Bulldogs inside the friendly confines of Neville Arena on Saturday, March 9 awaiting before postseason play. The game will be televised on SEC Network.
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Patrick is a sophomore from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He started with The Plainsman in fall 2022.
