No. 1 Auburn rolls over No. 15 Mississippi State in dominant win without star Johni Broome
Auburn, led by 18 first-half points from Chad Baker-Mazara, had no issue getting past Mississippi State on Tuesday night. (Stew Milne/Getty Images)
It turns out that the Tigers are just fine without star Johni Broome.
No. 1 Auburn rolled over No. 15 Mississippi State to grab an 88-66 win at Neville Arena. It marked their first game since taking over the top spot in the national rankings, and their first since losing their national Player of the Year candidate to an ankle sprain. While he should be back on the court before the end of the year, it doesn’t look like his absence is going to cause much of an issue for Bruce Pearl’s group.
The Tigers took a 19-point lead into the locker room at halftime after a dominant first 20 minutes on Tuesday night. They opened the game on a quick 10-0 burst, and then held the Bulldogs scoreless for the final two minutes of the period. The Bulldogs went just 1 of 11 from the 3-point line as a unit in the first half and made just nine field goals.
Auburn’s Chad Baker-Mazara, on the other hand, went a near-perfect 7 of 8 from the field to put up 18 points in the first half for the Tigers — who shot nearly 60% from the field.
Though Mississippi State looked like it might be able to make a run out of the break, Tahaad Pettiford shut that down quickly. Pettiford, after coming up with a steal near midcourt, threw down a wild windmill dunk that pushed the Tigers’ lead to 21 points — which was their largest of the game at the time.
From there, they simply cruised to the 22-point win.
Baker-Mazara finished with 20 points, two rebounds and one assist for the Tigers in the win, which pushed them to 16-1 on the year. It’s their seventh time in program history with a 16-1 start, and the third time under Pearl. Chaney Johnson added 17 points and eight rebounds, and Miles Kelly finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
Josh Hubbard led Mississippi State with 17 points and five rebounds, though he shout just 2 of 12 from the field in the loss. RJ Melendez added 15 points, and Claudell Harris Jr. finished with 11 points. They were the only other Bulldogs to hit double figures.
Broome is out indefinitely with his ankle sprain, which he sustained in Auburn’s win over South Carolina on Saturday. It’s unclear when he’ll be able to return, though he avoided surgery — which is a good sign. Broome has averaged 17.9 points and 10.7 rebounds per game this season.
Auburn’s win was part of a series of incredible matchups in the SEC on Tuesday night. No. 21 Ole Miss pulled off a road upset win over No. 4 Alabama. It was the program’s first-ever win against a top-five opponent on the road. No. 8 Kentucky fended off No. 11 Texas A&M, too.
While the Tigers have a rather intimidating stretch of their schedule ahead — starting with No. 23 Georgia on Saturday and then against No. 6 Tennessee next week — they seem just fine without Broome so far.
