It was another packed house on the road in the SEC and yet again No. 1 Auburn took care of business, maintaining a lead the entire second half, in a 92-82 quad-one win over No. 23 Ole Miss to give the Tigers a perfect 8-0 record in league playing to start the month of February.
“This was our toughest, our best road win so far,” head coach Bruce Pearl said. “Got some good ones, certainly in the league. I think the difference in the game was we were able to answer every run that they made.”
The top-ranked Tigers exploded from beyond the arc just a state over on Saturday knocking down 14 3-pointers – marking the most in SEC play and the best performance from deep since the season opener when Auburn hit 16 3-pointers against Vermont.
“It's fun. Real fun. I say it's simple. This is real fun,” Cardwell said when asked what it’s like when the guards heat up.
On the road, Auburn was able to start the game knocking down its first three attempts from deep. Three different Tigers hit three-or-more shots from beyond the arc with Denver Jones and Chad Baker-Mazara making four a piece.
“Tahaad, Miles, Chad, Denver Jones and so we think they're gonna make open shots too. They were open shots, not contested shots,” Pearl said of the squad’s confidence in the guards.
Jones, who entered Saturday’s contest shooting 21.4% in SEC play, went 4-for-7 from deep, finishing with 16 points and four assists. 13 of the senior guard’s 16 points were scored in the first half as Ole Miss held him to 1-for-6 from the field in the second half.
“I don't think Auburn can be beat if they go 14-for-28 from the 3-point line. So today, we didn't have much fortune in that. We needed, you guys know basketball, we needed a couple of shots to rim out and get the rebound,” Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said.
Miles Kelly, who continues to be a producer on the road for Auburn, hit half of his shots from deep and finished with 15 points – four of which came from free throw shots. Along with Kelly, Baker-Mazara scored 18 points, scoring in double figures in six of the Tigers’ eight SEC games, shooting 6-of-10 from the field with four made 3-pointers.
“Dylan and Johni were just too physically dominant. They just were too physically dominant. They're both these two gentle giants. They are great men, great people,” Pearl said of his centers.
Both Auburn big men, Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell, recorded double-doubles for the second time this season – joining just the Holiday Hoopsgiving performance against Ohio State.
“There are definitely some monsters,” OLe Miss guard Sean Pedulla said of Auburn’s players down low. “Whenever you get in rotations, sometimes when the shot goes up, it's a little bit more difficult to box-out that guy that big, obviously.”
Since returning from the two game ankle injury, Broome has recorded a double-double in each of the last three games. Broome put together his 12th 20 point game against Ole Miss on Saturday, finishing with 12 rebounds, four assists, two blocks and shooting 2-for-2 from deep.
“We knew they were undersized. We knew they had some physical players,” Cardwell said. “But we knew that we're taller than them going in, and that was going to be our focus on just getting second chance rebounds.”
It was Cardwell’s second career double-double as the fifth year senior recorded 10 points and 13 rebounds knocking down 4-of-5 shots from the charity stripe in the second half.
“After I got fouled BP said, ‘You got this’, and just to see what my coach believed in me, meant the world for me,” Cardwell said of the timeout prior to knocking down both free throws to secure a double-double.
The Tigers still allowed the Rebels to make it to the charity stripe 35 times, with Ole Miss collecting 24 points from free throws, which marks a season high for Auburn opponents’ free throw attempts.
“They scored 82 points against us. They scored 48 in the second half. They do that against Auburn, they're going to win. They're going to beat us a lot,” Pearl said of the Rebels’ surge offensively in the second half.
Auburn continues to bolster its historic resume as it picked up its nation-leading 13th quad-one win against Ole Miss which is five more than Oregon with eight. 13 quad-one wins now ranks seventh all-time in a season – joining 2020-21 Baylor and 2022-23 Alabama.
“The league's really good. I think Auburn's worthy of their current number one ranking,” Beard said.
The Tigers have now claimed their fourth consecutive 20-win season — meeting the mark in seven of the last eight seasons. This season is now the 16th 20-or-more win season in program history for Auburn…
and it's only February.
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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
