No. 2 Auburn opened SEC play in dominant fashion on Saturday afternoon, defeating the Missouri Tigers 84-68.
Auburn shot 57.1% from the field and 47.6% from three, marking its eighth game of the season with ten-plus made 3-pointers. Seven different Tigers made a bucket from behind-the-arc while Denver Jones, Chad Baker-Mazara and Tahaad Pettiford each had two 3-pointers apiece.
Johni Broome led the scoring effort with 24 points, marking his ninth game this season scoring at least 20 points. He also added seven rebounds and two assists.
“Being aggressive to start the conference and try to set the tone a little bit,” Broome said of his dominant performance. “My teammates and my coaches ran the plays and gave me the ball.”
Chaney Johnson was just behind Broome with 13 points, seven rebounds and two assists. Pettiford and Jones followed with ten points apiece, and Jones added seven assists and one rebound.
Auburn got off to a slow start, pulling away with the lead midway through the first half. The home Tigers got on the board first with a fastbreak dunk from Broome, and Missouri answered with a made jumper from Tamar Bates.
The two Tigers went back-and-forth for the game’s early minutes, and a pair of free throws and a made 3-pointer from Mark Mitchell gave Missouri a 7-6 lead over Auburn with 16:17 left to play in the first half.
Broome answered with a 3-pointer of his own to give Auburn back the lead with 15:56 left in the first half, and the Tigers didn't look back, leading for the rest of the game.
Auburn held Mitchell — who leads Missouri averaging 13.8 points per game — to six points and just two attempts from the field. As a team, Missouri shot 38.2% from the field and 30.4% from behind-the-arc.
“Size matters. Size matters in jewelry, and it matters in basketball,” said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl. “And our guys, Chaney, Dylan, Johni just, and look, Chad Baker, his length the length of our guards. So, they did a great job on Mitchell.”
At the end of the first half, Auburn led 45-33 and racked up seven made 3-pointers while holding Missouri to 11-for-26 from the field and just 2-for-10 from the 3-point line. Missouri won the turnover battle in the first half 7-5, but Auburn managed 14 first-half points off of turnovers while Missouri recorded just two.
The home Tigers started the second half on a 17-3 run, and back-to-back stepback 3-pointers from Baker-Mazara and Jones gave Auburn a 23 point lead with 15:27 left to play.
Missouri chipped away at Auburn's lead, cutting the deficit to 17 points with just over four minutes remaining, sinking three free throws following a technical foul on Pettiford.
Auburn pulled away and outscored Missouri 39-35 in the second half and evened out the turnover margin as both Tigers ended the matchup with 16 turnovers. Auburn managed 22 points off of turnovers while Missouri recorded 15.
“ I thought we did a pretty good job overall taking care of the ball, but that was a factor, not giving them easy points,” Pearl said. “They didn't get a ton of offense from their defense.”
With the win over Missouri, Pearl ties Joel Eaves for most career coaching victories in program history with 213.
Up next, No. 2 Auburn travels to Austin, Texas to face the Texas Longhorns in the Tigers’ first conference road test on Tuesday, Jan 7. Tipoff is set for 8:00 p.m. CST and will be televised on ESPN2.
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Grace Heim is a senior from Enterprise, Alabama, majoring in Political Science. She started with The Plainsman in January of 2023.
You can follow her on X (Twitter) at @graceeheim
