Led by Johni Broome, the Tigers picked up a third AP top-12 win just six games into the early 2024-25 season in an 85-72 win over No. 12 North Carolina to advance to the championship game of the Maui Invitational.
“The guys shared the ball really well. North Carolina is a great, great offensive team, and we know they've come back from 20 point deficits before. So I thought our guys stepped up the game. Started the second half well for sure, but also started the game extremely well,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said of the win.
It was all about the start for Auburn. The Tigers picked up where they left off against No. 5 Iowa State with a 21-6 run to open the contest against North Carolina. Of the Tigers eventual 40 first half points, Broome had nearly half with an 18-point performance.
Before the break, Broome had already picked up his 64th career double-double with 10 rebounds, shooting 8-of-13 from the field and two makes from deep all in the first half. The former all-American finished the 23 points – scoring 20-or-more points against all three AP top-12 opponents the Tigers have faced this season – and 19 rebounds.
“All he's ever done his entire career has proved people wrong. ‘Not an NBA player, because he's not an NBA athlete’. All he does is score and all he does is defend and all he does is win. He's an old school player that has developed an inside game and he's developed a perimeter game,” Pearl said of Broome.
While Broome might be an ‘old school’ big man, it seems the classics never go out of style as he became the first player in the last 25 seasons of Auburn basketball to have three straight games with 20 points and 10 rebounds.
“We got a guy we can throw the ball to and he can score down there, forces double teams and things like that. It's like having, you know, a guy like RJ Davis, who could just go get a bucket whenever he wants to off the perimeter,” Pearl said of Broome.
With the Tigers’ star only hitting one shot from the field in the second half, a cast of characters helped Auburn, not only start with a 12-2 run, but maintain a 10-plus point lead for the final 19:13 of the game.
Six Tigers scored in double figures on Tuesday night with Miles Kelly scoring 12 in the second half alone. Auburn had five players hit two-or-more shots from deep – shooting 37% from 3-point as a team.
“I thought Miles Kelly, this the best he's played in a big game for us. I thought he really guarded well, didn't turn the ball over, and shot it really well,” Pearl said.
Auburn’s defense held RJ Davis, a nominee for national player of the year by Naismith, NABC and Wooden and also the ACC’s preseason player of the year, to a season low 12 points following his 30 point performance last night against Dayton.
“I'll tell you what Denver Jones, one of the best defensive guards in college basketball, is one of the reasons why our team has won the games that we have won,” Pearl said. “Nobody talks about it, writes about it. I don't know how many times he scored. I don't know how many times RJ Davis scored on him, but not many.”
North Carolina had averaged 93.0 points per game prior to the matchup with Auburn – scoring 89 points against No. 1 Kansas – and scored just 72 against the Tigers. Pearl’s defense forced seven steals and had seven blocks. The Tigers tuned the Tar Heels over 10 times resulting in 15 points.
Following a win over No. 12 North Carolina in which Auburn never trailed and led by 10-or-more points for nearly the entire second half, the No. 4 Tigers will take on the Memphis Tigers in the Maui Invitational championship game on Wednesday at 4 p.m. CST on ESPN – a contest in which the orange and blue Tigers come off short rest finishing their game nearly nine hours after Memphis.
“Obviously fatigue will be a factor,” Pearl said of the championship clash with Memphis. “We're trying to get our guys back off their feet as quickly as we possibly can.”
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Patrick is a junior from Auburn, Alabama, double majoring in journalism and marketing. He started with The Plainsman in the fall of 2022.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @patrickabingham
