No. 1 Auburn narrowly escaped a tough conference road game as it took down the No. 23 Georgia Bulldogs in Stegeman Coliseum, 70-68. The Tigers stay undefeated in conference play - as they took down ranked SEC opponent Georgia for their first ranked conference road win - to stay atop the SEC as one of two undefeated teams in conference play at 5-0. The Tigers have managed to win both of their ranked conference games without star player Johni Broome being active, further showing the depth of the team.
The Tigers had some struggles though as they shot an uncharacteristic 39.3 field goal percentage which is a far cry from the 50.9 percent they came into the game averaging. The Tigers' 3-point shooting was a big factor early with threes coming in the first half coming from guards Miles Kelly, Chad Baker-Mazara and Tahaad Pettiford who had four in the half. Pettiford finished with 24 total points, which was a career-high for the freshman.
“We made 10 threes and we shot a great percentage from three”, said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl when asked about winning despite the difficulty shooting from the field, “And that was a big factor. I think the second factor is that we didn’t get dominated on the boards. The fact we that we had 25 defensive rebounds to their 12 offensive rebounds. Those two factors had lots to do with us hanging on.”
Despite the 3-point shots falling early for Auburn, the Bulldogs kept their resolve, even after being down as much as 17 points, to claw their way back into the game thanks to a 13-0 run getting the game back to a one score game. The Bulldogs took advantage of an uncharacteristic day from the top-ranked Tigers struggling with their shots by out shooting Auburn with a 45.6 shooting percentage, many of those coming from some tough shots by Asa Newell and Blue Cain, who combined for 28 of the team’s 68 points.
Even with a sold out crowd on the road the number one ranked team in the country did what they do and found a way to win even without their typical shooting, or Broome being on the court. The team showed composure throughout the entirety of the game even with a ridiculous combined 18 points being scored by both teams in the last minute alone.
“We expect to come out here and win every game.” Pettiford said about the players looseness throughout the final minute, “Especially up last minute, we should be able to close out all those types of games. So, knowing that we can close it up we just got to keep the composure and do what we got to do.”
In a ranked matchup like this, one would expect an extreme home crowd that’s hosting an in-conference top-ranked rival, and there were of course many Georgia fans in attendance, but there was also an impressive amount of noise coming from the Auburn fans who traveled to see their team play. Throughout the game you could hear the fans of both team’s trade cheers when their respective squads would score or get a stop.
“We won’t play a game this year that won’t be sold out,” Pearl said. “So whether we bring their fans or we bring our own fans, Auburn is going to travel and Auburn is going to be sold out.”
The Tigers look to continue to keep on rolling in the SEC as they have a full week off before hosting their toughest SEC opponent yet, Tennessee, in Neville Arena on Saturday, Jan. 25th, at 7:30 CST. in what is sure to be yet another sold out conference game.
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
Reid is a freshman, exploratory major. He joined the Plainsman in the fall of 2024.
You can follow him on X (Twitter) at @ReidFarris2
