OXFORD, Miss. (EETV) – Top-ranked Auburn Men’s Basketball headed west on to kick off February, taking on the No. 23 Ole Miss Rebels at The Pavillion. After a physical, hard fought matchup, the Tigers secured a 92-82 win to improve to 20-1 on the season and 9-0 in SEC Play.
Auburn jumped out to an early 6-0 lead via threes from Chad Baker-Mazara and Miles Kelly. Ole Miss was unfazed, though, responding to take a 13-9 lead sparked by senior guard Sean Pedulla. With 12 minutes to play in the first half, Auburn would bounce back and retake the lead 17-14 off of a Denver Jones three.
From there, the Tigers never looked back, maintaining the lead for the rest of the contest. Ole Miss would hang around the entire time though, never letting Auburn rest.
The Rebels played a resilient second half, cutting the deficit to two with ten minutes left to play. However, it wasn’t enough, and Auburn was able to regrow its lead thanks to strong defense and lights-out shooting from its guards.
The leading scorer for Auburn on the day was National Player of the Year contender Johni Broome. Despite aggravating his left shoulder in the first half, Broome racked up 20 points, 12 rebounds, four assists, and two blocks.
The game was Broome’s 13th double-double of the season, as well as his third consecutive double-double since returning from an ankle injury sustained on Jan. 11 at South Carolina.
The Auburn guards were no slouch either, shooting a combined 12-22 from beyond the arc. Chad Baker Mazara led the way in the backcourt with 18 points and four made threes. Denver Jones also made four from deep range, and racked up 16 points. Close behind them was Miles Kelly, who knocked down three threes on his way to 15 points.
The final Auburn player in double figures was graduate big man Dylan Cardwell. The center racked up ten points, shot 4-5 from the free throw line, and led the Tigers in rebounding with 13 boards.
Cardwell also had the highlight of the day, securing an extremely high lob pass from Denver Jones with one hand and slamming it down for an emphatic alley-oop dunk to give Auburn a 44-36 lead.
The performances from Cardwell and Broome were extremely valuable for the Tigers in a game where Auburn had an imposing physical advantage, something not lost on Auburn Head Coach Bruce Pearl.
“The difference in the game was that we had an answer to every run they made,” Pearl said. “And Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell were physically dominant.”
The Ole Miss fight was spearheaded by a white-hot Sean Pedulla. The Virginia Tech transfer scored 29 points, his highest mark of the season and highest since Jan. 13 of last season when he scored 33 for the Hokies, also in a loss. Pedulla finished the game 10-16 from the field and 3-6 from three.
Overall, the win for Auburn was its fifth on the road in SEC play, and its second ranked road win in SEC competition this season, an extremely impressive feat in a conference where most believe that any record over .500 should be enough to warrant an NCAA Tournament berth.
“This was our toughest, our best road win so far,” Coach Pearl said. “And we’ve had some good ones, certainly, in our league.”
Though Auburn is back in Neville Arena this week, the schedule doesn’t get any easier. Auburn will host 15-5 Oklahoma on Tuesday, and then host No. 5 Florida on Saturday in another titanic SEC matchup.
The Gators blew out Auburn last year in Gainesville, but are different teams, Auburn is now ranked #1, and the Gators are coming off a weekend where they suffered their biggest loss of the season in Knoxville vs Tennessee. Expect the Auburn Jungle to show up, be loud, and look to take advantage of one of college basketball’s toughest environments once again.
