The No.1 ranked Auburn Tigers hosted the Arkansas Razorbacks in an SEC showdown that did not disappoint. During the matchup, Auburn's Chad Baker-Mazara hit a huge milestone: 1,000 career points. Despite the Razorbacks' resurgence, the Tigers increased their lead to seven and prevented them from scoring again, with a final score of 67-60.
However, the game didn't start the way the Tigers hoped for, with five lead changes in the first five minutes. Neither team seemed to be able to pull away until Baker-Mazara hit two free throws to give Auburn a five-point lead before a timeout. Baker-Mazara would score the majority of Auburn's points from that point on in the half.
National Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome led the Tigers throughout the first half with eight points and seven rebounds. Broome and the rest of the Tigers struggled from shooting beyond the arc, with Miles Kelly, Tahaad Pettiford, Denver Jones, and Baker-Mazara being the only players in white to knock one down. Despite that, they still outshot the Razorbacks, which is exactly what they needed to keep control of the game.
Not only did Arkansas shoot poorly from deep, but they couldn't buy a free throw to save their life. Auburn didn't shoot it well, only hitting 17% of their threes, but Arkansas hit 16% of their deep shots. Not only that, but they only hit two of six free throws. That being said, Auburn's defense proved to be one of the best in the country once again, with forcing poor shooting percentages for Arkansas and even forcing some shot clock violations.
The Tigers held every Arkansas player under 10 points and kept the rebound numbers low. The game had high intensity as well, with technical fouls being tossed toward everyone. The Tigers maintained enough composure to keep the lead at half, with the score being 33-27.
The second half was met with more competition from the Razorbacks. They erased the lead a lot, tying the game twice and taking the lead once. Things didn't look too good for the Tigers when tied at 37, yet when Broome missed a shot, Chaney Johnson swooped in and tipped it back in, giving the Auburn Tigers new life. He stepped up big in the second half, leading all scorers with 12. Broome and Baker-Mazara backed him with eight each. Shooting continued to look rough for Auburn, but they found other ways to score and defended against Arkansas well.
Arkansas was cornered most of the second half, spending most of it trying to fight back against the tough Tigers. They gave the ball up to Auburn six times in the half, with most of those turnovers occurring during the last five minutes, when it mattered most. The Razorback frontcourt duo of Zvonimir Ivisic and Trevon Brazile were shut down by Broome, Dylan Cardwell, and Johnson. Neither player scored and combined for five rebounds (Ivisic got all of them). Auburn's big men made their opponents nonfactors in Wednesday's game and made sure the game never got out of hand.
Even though the scoreboard was lower than usual for Auburn, they still found themselves where they wanted to be, in the winners column. The Tigers walked out of Neville Arena with a 67-60 win over the Arkansas Razorbackks. This game marks 16 double-doubles this season for Johni Broome and 1,000+ career points for Chad Baker-Mazara.
This win improves the No. 1 ranked Auburn Tigers to 23-2 (11-1 in SEC play), and they look to continue their new win streak as they host the Georgia Bulldogs on Saturday, February 22nd, at 3 p.m.
