On Wednesday, Auburn dominated Vermont 94-43 to start the season 1-0 behind a hot start from Miles Kelly and Auburn’s defense.
After a long offseason following the opening round loss to Yale that left every Auburn fan with a bad taste in their mouth, the fans were excited to start the new basketball season. Auburn’s first opponent Vermont, a fellow reigning conference champion and March Madness team, came into Neville Arena hoping to at least put up a fight against an Auburn roster loaded with upper-classmen. It didn’t take long for the game to get out of hand, but Bruce Pearl credited Vermont for playing Auburn tough before Auburn’s top-25 game on Saturday against #4 Houston.
The fully packed Neville arena came to cheer early and often as Chad Baker-Mazara scored Auburn’s first five points of the season before Johni Broome hit an amazing step-back three-pointer to put the Tigers up 10-5. The crowd kept waiting to erupt as shots were not hitting early on, but coming back after the media timeout, they finally got what they wanted, as Auburn scored on back-to-back possessions, with Miles Kelly hitting his first three of the day.
Halfway through the first quarter with Auburn firmly up 22-10, Auburn’s offense finally got rolling with a huge dunk by Johni Broome, firing up the student section after feeling he got fouled on the possession prior. After a Vermont timeout, Chad Baker-Mazara would keep his hot night rolling as he would hit back-to-back threes, extending the double-digit lead for the Tigers and firmly putting Vermont on their heels.
Heading into halftime with a resounding 46-21 lead, Auburn’s great defense stuffed the stat sheet as they forced 12 first half turnovers and forced the Catamounts to shoot 28% from the field in the first half. CBM also led all scorers in the first half with 14 points, nine of those coming from beyond the arc as he shot an efficient 50% from three-point land.
Straight into the second half, it was all Broome right out the gates, as he had an electric dunk with a defender draped all over him before hitting a three right in the defender’s face the very next possession. Denver tried going bucket-for-bucket with Johni after, making three straight three-point plays which forced an early Vermont timeout, who were already down 39 in the second half. Thus started the Miles Kelly show.
In a stretch that already included a highlight windmill dunk by Jahki Howard, Miles Kelly went nuclear, scoring five straight three-pointers, effectively blowing the roof off Neville and clinching him as the MVP of this beatdown. It seemed Miles could not miss as he was pulling up from all over the court, even hitting a walk-up three-pointer in transition right over the defender.
After that incredible hot streak that forced a Vermont timeout, the rest of the action was relatively quiet as the defense only gave up 22 second half points, allowing most of the bench to come in and earn minutes late in the game.
Heading into a top-25 matchup Saturday in what feels like an early-season heavyweight fight, Bruce Pearl questioned his team, even after a great win.
Pearl postgame asked “We gotta be able to step it up, can we play like this on the road against Houston?”
Fans and Pearl will be able to answer that question as Auburn travels to play the #4 team in the country, Houston, this Saturday at 8:30 P.M. on ESPNU.
