Tag: AuburnSports

AUBURN | In a battle of Tigers, it was No. 2 Auburn that got the best of the competition as Bruce Pearl’s squad ran away from Missouri, 84-68, in the SEC opener in Neville Arena.

After both teams settled in following the first four minutes, Auburn started to take control with a 25-11 run to extend the lead to 16 points with 5:37 to go in the first half.

It was more of the same in the second half as Auburn came out on a 12-1 in less than three minutes, capped off by back-to-back threes by Chad Baker-Mazara and Denver Jones to run the lead to 23.

Johni Broome led Auburn with 24 points while bringing down six rebounds and blocking four shots. Baker-Mazara and Chaney Johnson added 13 points apiece, while Jones put up 10 points and a team-high seven assists. Tahaad Pettiford added 10 points.

Broome credited his teammates and coaches with how productive he was.

“Just being aggressive,” he said. “The start of conference, I wanted to try and set the tone a little bit. My teammates and my coaches, they ran the plays to get me the ball.”

The win was Bruce Pearl’s 213th at Auburn, tying Joel Eaves for the most in program history.

Auburn improves to 13-1 (1-0 SEC), while Missouri drops to 11-3 (0-1). The Tigers return to the court on Tuesday in Austin as they play Texas at 8 p.m. CT. Broome knows what is ahead of them.

“It means a lot,” he said. “We have a special team. I think it’s our foundation. That’s a good way to start it off, but we’re not satisfied with just this game. We know we want to keep going and keep setting the tone.”