AUBURN, Al. (EETV) - Auburn played their final home/regular season game on Saturday, and faced off against their biggest rival, the No. 7 Alabama Crimson Tide. The Tigers honored seniors Chad Baker-Mazara, Denver Jones, Chaney Johnson, Miles Kelly, JP Pegues and Ja'Heim Hudson for senior night as well.
It was an epic showdown between the two teams in front of a sold-out crowd, but antics, rebounding, and defense cost the top-ranked Tigers the game. Auburn's Johni Broome dropped a career high of 34 points in his final game at Neville Arena. Despite the career day for Broome, Mark Sears sank a floater as the clock expired to give the Crimson Tide a 93-91 upset victory to split the season series 1-1.
The Iron Bowl of Basketball began with Auburn drawing first blood, but Alabama took the lead after two straight buckets and kept it for the remainder of the first half. Plenty of action, runs and bad blood only added fuel to the rivalry and kept everyone on the edge of their seat.
Auburn couldn't get over Alabama's two possession lead throughout the first half, but maintained the Crimson Tide from expanding it, especially on defense. The Tigers forced eight turnovers in the first 20 minutes and led in steals and blocks as well. What helped the Tide keep their lead, however, was fast break points and rebounds.
The Tigers were led by National Player of the Year favorite Johni Broome with 16 points and five rebounds and Tahaad Pettiford with 14 points. Grant Nelson led the Tide with 15 points and Chris Youngblood with nine points. It was a constant back and forth battle between both teams with animosity growing throughout the first half. The Tigers couldn't quite overcome the deficit and went into halftime down 45-42.
Aubur opened the second half well, with five straight points to take the lead back. From then it was back and forth action until the 12 minute mark. In under one minute, Alabama went on a 10-0 run to put them up 65-58. During that Alabama run, Auburn suffered a loss in terms of ejections. Chad Baker-Mazara was called for a flagrant two foul when he elbowed Chris Youngblood in the back of the head intentionally.
When asked about Baker-Mazara's ejection after the game, Johni Broome said, "He just needs to learn from his mistakes. We all still love Chad, and we still had the opportunity to win without Chad. So my message to him is to learn from his mistakes." With the absence of Baker-Mazara, Auburn fought back but his presence was evidently missed.
Auburn tied the game with five minutes to go, and after that the lead didn't grow larger than three. Auburn had final possession in regulation with the game tied up, and Johni Broome shot a fadeaway over Nelson for the win and hit the front iron, sending it to overtime.
In overtime, Auburn had momentum with scoring first, and kept the game in their favor until Tahaad Pettiford got the ball stolen from him by freshman phenom Labaron Philon, who laid it up and in to give the Crimson Tide the lead. After that, Alabama had momentum and won the game off a last second floater from Mark Sears, silencing the crowd.
Auburn was led by Johni Broome, who put up his career high 34 points with eight rebounds, and Tahaad Pettiford was the next man up with 19 points and six assists. The Tigers held Sears to nine points, but Grant Nelson led them with 23 points followed by Philon with 15.
No. 7 ranked Alabama broke Auburn's hearts with a 93-91 last second victory to conclude the regular season for the SEC regular season champions. Auburn has secured a double bye in the SEC Tournament which starts next week on Wednesday, March 12 at noon. Auburn will play their next game on Friday, March 14th in the SEC tournament. They end the season with a 27-4 record and 15-3 record in SEC play.
