Auburn rang the challenge bell in Nashville, opening up the SEC tournament with a strong Ole Miss team coming off a tough win against Arkansas.
Johni Broome was essential in the win. Star power propelled the Tigers to a much-needed win following two straight to close out the regular season.
During the first half of the 62-57 win, Auburn's defense came on strong, holding an Ole Miss squad averaging 83 points to only 22 in the first half.
Some might say they played slow or even sloppy but Chris Beard is an excellent coach who has his team ready to compete every game -- and Friday was no different.
In the second half the game really seemed to open up after a Chad Baker-Mazara’s ally-oop to Broome gave the Tigers a 38-30 lead. Then they would get cocky and careless and let turnovers give Ole Miss a 7-0. Chaney Johnson brought the rain with a 3-pointer from the corner ending the drought with 6:05 left to go. Then after some back-and-forth scoring, Denver Jones took over the game defensively for the Tigers.
The Rebels didn’t score for nearly two whole minutes while he and Johni Broome put Auburn up 10 until Ole Miss’ Davon Barnes was fouled and hit both his free throws with 2:54 left on the clock. Making the score 57-49.
The end of game did look sloppy but with so much time on the clock Auburn had to figure out a way to burn as much clock as possible without letting Ole Miss back in the game while being forced to play in Ole Miss’ tempo.
But thankfully Bruce Pearl does what Bruce Pearl does: be the bane of Beard's coaching existence and figure it out in AU's successful opening salvo.
The Tigers await whoever comes out of the battle between Texas and Tennessee for their next opponent.