Johni Broome adds his seventh double double of the season and a trifecta of guards end in double figures as the Tigers win by three touchdowns, defeating the Dawgs 94-73.
The Auburn Tigers (17-5, 7-2 SEC) hosted the Georgia Bulldogs (14-8, 4-5 SEC) on Wednesday night inside a Neville Arena that witnessed its first loss in 29 games last time out. Tonight’s game, however, never had a question mark of who the better squad was.
Each Auburn starter opened the game with a missed three pointer, before sophomore forward, Johni Broome, cleaned the glass and got the scoring started with an old-fashioned three point play. That one play defined Broome’s night, as he had a double double going into the halftime break. Broome finished with 19 points on 8-11 shooting and 18 boards in only 21 minutes of game action.
“We absolutely dominated the ‘five’ position tonight… dominated," Auburn's head coach Bruce Pearl stated in regard to how his bigs played throughout the entire forty minutes of action. They had the physical advantage tonight, and they took advantage of that”.
“Last time we played them they beat us on the offensive glass, and we took that a little personal, so coming into this game we wanted to be physical and dominate the glass”, Broome mentioned early on in regard to the preparation the Tigers had from their last meeting in Athens.
The guard play for Auburn in tonight’s contest was also very impressive, thanks to an extremely efficient night all around. Allen Flanigan (22 points), Wendell Green (18 points) and KD Johnson (13 points) combined for 53 points on 18-28 shooting, which were all huge confidence steps and momentum blocks for the upcoming stretch for the Tigers. Auburn shot just over 45% from the field in the first half, but exploded in the second half, shooting 67% and only missing ten shots on 31 attempts
“I actually texted Al last night and told him ‘you’re going to have a bunch of points… you’re going to play great defense, and you’re not going to turn the ball over, and I love it when I’m right”, coach Pearl said when asked about the play of Flanigan tonight.
The test of the season begins now for Auburn. Heading to Tennessee, Texas A&M, Kentucky, Alabama as well as hosting Alabama, Missouri, and Tennessee, head coach Bruce Pearl knows this is going to be a real test for his team.
“We’ve got to beat the teams we can, and pick a couple we’re going to be underdogs in”, Pearl said in his statements about the schedule. “We got nine games left and we’re probably going to be a dog in six of them… we have to pick up a couple that are going to be really hard to get”.
It all begins this weekend, as the Tigers head to Knoxville to take on the second ranked team in the country, the Tennessee Volunteers (18-4, 7-2 SEC) on Saturday, February 4th at 1:00PM CT on ESPN.
