No. 2 Auburn passes its first SEC road test of the season beating Texas 87-82 win to pick up the Tigers’ seventh quad-one win of the season – which leads nationally. The win was head coach Bruce Pearl’s 214th at Auburn which passed Joel Eaves in career wins with the Tigers to stand alone as the winningest head coach in program history.
“Joel Eaves, right? Sonny Smith, Coach Ellis, Bruce Pearl, I'll roll with that crowd all day, every day. And so, you know it just brings the glory to those guys,” Pearl said to the Auburn radio following the win.
Texas’ 15-4 run down the stretch of the second half cut Auburn’s 21 point lead to single digits, but the Tigers would push the lead back up to 17 before the Longhorns would find themselves in a one-possession game 33 seconds remaining.
“We gotta figure it out pretty quickly because, you know, we gave up 55 in the second half. So, we're not gonna win any games period doing that,” Pearl said of his team’s second half defense.
However, 20-for-24 shooting from the charity stripe in the second half helped the Tigers not only secure the win late but never give up the lead despite a 55-point Texas second half performance.
“It's just all about maturity. We have 10 seniors, so we have guys who have been through some adversity, and it's about what you would say in tough and tough times. So that's what we did,” guard Miles Kelly said.
Kelly was an asset for Auburn early and often knocking down 4-of-6 shots from deep to total 18 points Tuesday evening – marking the fourth game this season the Georgia Tech transfer has made four-or-more 3-pointers.
“I haven't shot the ball the way I wanted to shoot the ball, and today, the rims just felt crazy, like I just had, I got a feeling tonight,” Kelly said. “So everything I put up, mostly, it was going in.”
Kelly, one of five Tigers to score in double figures against the Longhorns, finished the day shooting 6-for-12 from the field in 29 minutes of action.
Alongside Kelly, leading Auburn in scoring was Johni Broome who put together a 20 point performance, shooting 7-of-15 from the field and knocking down 6-of-7 free throws in the second half. Broome has scored 20-or-more points in all eight of the Tigers’ quad-one games this season.
With 12 rebounds, Broome recorded his 70th career double-double and is now tied for second nationally with 10 recorded this season. Broome has recorded double-digit double-doubles in all five seasons of his career.
“Texas will beat almost everybody here. They won’t win them all, but they're going to win,” Pearl said. “Coach does a really good job. Really talented, really talented.”
Arthur Kaluma recorded a 34-point performance against the Tigers on Tuesday evening, shooting 12-of-16 from the field with five makes from deep. Kaluma was the first player for Texas to score 30-or-more points against an AP top-two team since Kevin Durant did so against Kansas in 2007.
“That's a talented team. I mean, Kaluma is going to be an NBA player. Johnson, they're saying it's top 10 player,” Pearl said.
But, the Tigers defense was able to do just enough down the stretch, turning Texas over 11 times, scoring 20 second-chance points and collecting 6 steals and 10 blocks.
“It was a gritty win. We made it interesting at the end but glad we came out with the dub,” Kelly said.
No. 2 Auburn and Pearl, after collecting their seventh quad-one win at Texas, will travel to South Carolina to take on the Gamecocks this Saturday, Jan. 11 at Noon CST on the SEC Network.
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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
