On Monday night, #4 Auburn came back to beat #5 Iowa State 83-81 behind a buzzer-beater by Johni Broome to win their first round matchup of the Maui Invitational.
After a long, but exciting football game Saturday night, Auburn fans wanted to keep it rolling out in Maui Monday. In an early season top-five matchup against Iowa State, Auburn wanted another quality win in order to be battle-tested for the rest of the season. Auburn fans saw another exciting finish this weekend as Johni Broome completed the 18-point second-half comeback with a buzzer-beater put-back layup.
Early, It didn’t look like that momentum from Saturday would carry over early as Iowa State lived up to their major defensive reputation. With Iowa State forcing multiple early turnovers, Auburn’s offense started off slow, failing to score a basket in the first two and a half minutes. Iowa State hurried the game up for Auburn, allowing them to gain the momentum early, after some easy fast break opportunities.
Even after a short-lived comeback led by Pettiford, Iowa State started to get burning hot, going on a 10-0 run in just under two minutes. That run pushed that lead to 13, making it 30-17 Iowa State. Iowa State’s offense didn’t slow down, pushing the lead to 17 just a couple minutes later, forcing Auburn to the brink early.
Auburn’s limited offense tried to get close late in the first half, bringing the score back to 10, but Iowa State quickly responded by going up 16 right before half. Some of the only bright spots in the first half were Pettiford and Broome as they combined to score 20 of Auburn’s first half points, including three big threes-pointers to stop the bleeding from Iowa State’s explosive defense.
Bruce Pearl awakened Auburn’s lackluster offense at half as Johni Broome came out swinging in the first half. With Johni quick four points on the offensive side and multiple defensive hustle plays, his spectacular play inspired his teammates with Chad Baker-Mazara hitting back-to-back threes to make it a four point game. After nine straight Chad Baker-Mazara points, Miles Kelly hit a three from what seemed a mile away to cap a 18-2 run to tie the game at 53.
The rest of the second half was exactly what a basketball fan wanted with both teams hitting big-time shots, with Auburn finally taking a two-point lead with four minutes left in the game. Chad Baker-Mazara had to be the second-half MVP alongside Denver Jones as he scored 16 second half points, even with an injury. Both teams went back-and-forth hitting big shots with Iowa State tying it with only a couple seconds left. After a big half, Denver almost got the game-winner laying it up but then Johni tipped it back in, sending the crowd into a frenzy.
After the game Chad talked about his game early in the game saying, “My momma raised a warrior. If I’m not dead, I’m going out there.”
Until 10:00 CT tomorrow night, fans will worry about just how healthy Chad will be as Auburn plays North Carolina on ESPN.
