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Takeaways: No. 16 Auburn holds lead entire game, defeats South Carolina

On3 imageby:Ellie Oldham•01/21/23•

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Johni Broome (Photo by Auburn Athletics)

After a dominant performance, Auburn extends their win streak to five in Columbia, S.C. on Saturday afternoon during their road-heavy stretch of conference play. For just the fifth time in program history, the Tigers have won back-to-back SEC road games by double digits.

Auburn had the lead the entire game, but South Carolina’s 18-3 run in the second half cut their deficit to 10. The Tigers were able to stretch their lead back to 20, making five of six shots with just over three minutes left in the game.

The final: Auburn 81, South Carolina 66

Auburn improves to 6-1 SEC play, while South Carolina falls to 1-5 in the conference.

“Proud of our guys, with the exception of maybe at Georgia, which is not an easy place, our guys have taken care of business,” Bruce Pearl said after the win. “That’s three road wins so far for us. We all recognize though that the schedule toughens starting next week.”

Next up, the Tigers return to Neville Arena to compete against Texas A&M and look to extend their title of the nation’s longest home-court win streak to 29 games. The Aggies got their first conference loss today against Kentucky.

Here’s takeaways from Auburn’s road win against South Carolina.

— Despite shooting just 22% from three in the first half, Auburn out performed South Carolina in all categories. The Gamecocks shot just 26% as a team, 14% from beyond the arch and headed into the locker room down by 17.

“When you hold South Carolina to 22 points and you shoot 57% yourself, that’s the formula for a good lead, we just didn’t maintain that, to give South Carolina credit,” Pearl said.

— Although he had four straight double-doubles, Johni Broome has been quiet in the past two games, recording just four and six points. Today, though, he was quickly on track to record his sixth double double, recording 14 points and four rebounds in the first half alone. The sophomore continued to produce in the second half, finishing with 27 points and 11 rebounds.

“…From my standpoint, I’ve had a couple of rough games, so it was good to just get going early,” Broome said on his performance.

— Wendell Green Jr. also recorded a double-double today, finishing up with 16 points and 12 assists. He is now on a five game double-digit streak after scoring 14 points at LSU. The juniors’ free throw streak ended today, though, at 25, just two shy of the Auburn record of 27.

— One of the highly talked-about points this season for Auburn has been the need to limit turnovers. Tonight, the Tigers had just nine, marking the fifth time in six games with under 10 turnovers as a team. The Gamecocks, on the other hand, had 14 and the Tigers produced 22 points off of them.

— Other offensive players had solid outings tonight, but were overshadowed by the double-double duo in Broome and Green. Jaylin Williams had 12 points and four offensive rebounds. Allen Flanigan is continuing to perform well, recording 10 rebounds, second on the team just behind Broome.

— Auburn is currently ranked No. 11 in defensive efficiency and No. 23 in offensive rebounding, averaging 14.9 per game. Today, both teams had a total of 35 rebounds. The Tigers’ defense had 25 and Broome was the leader with 11 in the game.

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