LEXINGTON, Ky. (EETV) – Auburn men’s basketball defeated the Alabama State Hornets 83-63 on Saturday to advance to the second round of this year’s NCAA Tournament.
Auburn came out of the blocks strong, taking a 15-8 lead in the game’s first six minutes. 12 of those 15 points came from Miles Kelly, the Auburn guard picking up right where he left off the last time the Tigers played in Rupp Arena.
Despite Kelly’s hot start, the rest of the Auburn squad struggled to put up points early. The Tigers offense sputtered, leading to a 14-4 run by Alabama State that had the Hornets right back in the game with five minutes to play in the half.
The Hornets continued to shrink the lead over the next four minutes, drawing within a single point multiple times led by sharp shots from Amarr Knox and TJ Madlock. Despite the late surge, Auburn buckled back down and went on a 9-0 run to end the first half to enter the locker room with a 41-31 lead.
The second half for the Tigers was notably better than the first, though still not up to the team’s full potential. Auburn extended its lead to begin the half, and kept the hammer down. The Tigers’ lead extended to ten, then 15, and finally 20 points at the 12:54 mark of the half.
The gap stabilized from there, with Auburn holding Alabama State at an arm’s length for the remainder of the contest. Despite that, there were still issues down the stretch. The struggles at the free throw line continued to persist for the Tigers, who finished just 18-32 from the charity stripe on the day, something that remains unacceptable for Auburn Head Coach Bruce Pearl.
“We missed 14 free throws,” Pearl said. “We made 18. That’s going to catch us in a close game.”
Despite the free throw hiccups, Auburn held serve and secured the 20-point win, moving the Tigers on to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Auburn’s leading scorer on the day was Miles Kelly, the guard racking up 23 points and seven made threes in his second performance as the leading scorer in Rupp Arena this season. The guard was asked after the game what the performance, his first in the tournament for Auburn, meant to him.
“It’s everything I dreamed of,” Kelly said. “It’s great. My teammates did a great job of finding me. All I had to do was knock it down.”
Tahaad Pettiford was another Tiger that saw a return to form, securing 16 points, five rebounds, and five assists following his rough semifinal game vs Tennessee in the SEC Tournament, a performance that had Coach Pearl feeling encouraged about the freshman.
“Great to see [Tahaad] bounce back,” Coach Pearl said. “Even after he missed his first couple shots...he just lit up.”
Another encouragement for Coach Pearl was the reappearance of Chaney Johnson. The forward, who had just 16 points across his last five games, delivered 13 points and seven rebounds for the Tigers in the contest, leading to a visibly happier Chaney after the game.
“It’s a great feeling,” Johnson said. “Coming off a bad string of games. Just being there for my team.”
On top of the Tournament game win, there was more history for the Tigers as Johni Broome recorded a double-double in the game, breaking the record for double-doubles by an Auburn player.
The next matchup for Auburn will be against the Creighton Bluejays, who beat Louisville 89-75 earlier on Thursday. Creighton comes into the game as the Big East runner-up with a 25-10 record on the season, and is a team that Coach Pearl knows will be a step up in competition for his squad.
“We won’t beat Creighton if we play like we did tonight,” Coach Pearl said.
That game will take place on Saturday, also in Lexington, the matchup of the one seed and the nine seed in the NCAA Tournament’s South Region. If Auburn were to win, it would be the Tigers' first trip to the Sweet Sixteen since they made the Final Four in 2019.
