Five Auburn players scored in double figures and the host Tigers, the top-ranked team in the nation, survived their first test without their best player, Johni Broome, prevailing 88-66 over No. 15 Mississippi State on Tuesday.
Chad Baker-Mazara scored 18 of his game-high 20 points in the first half for the Tigers (16-1, 4-0 Southeastern Conference), while Chaney Johnson added 17 points, eight rebounds and four of Auburn’s 10 blocked shots. Miles Kelly contributed 13 points and 10 boards, Denver Jones chipped in 13 points, and freshman Tahaad Pettiford hit for 12 points off the bench.
Josh Hubbard scored 17 points for the Bulldogs (14-3, 2-2) but made just 2 of 12 field-goal attempts, doing most of his scoring by going 11-for-12 at the foul line. RJ Melendez added 15 points and 10 rebounds, while Claudell Harris Jr. netted 11 points.
The Tigers led for all but 27 seconds, stretching the advantage out to as many as 26 points on multiple occasions in the second half. Mississippi State used a 17-4 run to pull within 73-60 with 4:45 left, but Auburn put it totally out of reach with a 15-2 burst after a timeout.
The main storyline coming into this one was how Auburn would respond without Broome. The national player of the year candidate, who sprained an ankle Saturday in the Tigers’ 66-63 win at South Carolina, is expected to miss the upcoming Saturday trip to No. 23 Georgia, too.
In the first half of on Tuesday, the Tigers fared quite nicely without their star. They jumped out to a 10-0 lead behind Baker-Mazara, who scored eight straight points in a 74-second span, including back-to-back 3-pointers that forced a Mississippi State timeout.
Auburn’s lead was cut to 20-17 before it ripped off a 13-1 spurt that Johnson capped with a 3-pointer at the 5:47 mark for a 33-18 advantage. Baker-Mazara finished his big half by drilling another 3-pointer with two seconds remaining to make it 46-27 at intermission.
–Field Level Media
