Auburn starts fast, holds Penn at bay in final game before SEC play: Key stats and quotes inside

AUBURN — It wasn’t always pretty, but No. 25 Auburn took care of business in their final non-conference game of the season. The Tigers allowed a 20-point lead in the first half shrink to 12 in the second half, but bounced back and pulled away, defeating Penn, 88-68.

Auburn moves to 11-2 on the season and travels to Arkansas for the SEC opener on Saturday.

Johni Broome led Auburn with 24 points and 12 rebounds. Broome shot 9-10 from the field.

Chad Baker-Mazara added 16 points on 50 percent shooting, while Denver Jones scored 12.

Aden Holloway shot just 1-5 from the field (2-10 in the last game against Chattanooga), but added six assists and just one turnover.

KD Johnson did a little bit of everything as well, scoring 13 points, grabbing five rebounds and dishing out four assists.

Key stats

— Auburn hit 12 threes in the game…the season high was 14 set against Indiana earlier this season…for context, the school record for threes is 22 set against South Alabama in 2020.

— However, 10 of those makes came in the first half. The Tigers opened 6-9 from three, but finished just 6-26 the rest of the way.

— Broome hadn’t hit a three in nine games, but hit three in this one (two in the first three minutes of the game), finishing with 22 points and 12 rebounds. It’s Broome’s first career game with three made three-pointers.

— Auburn’s second-half defense was again an issue. Penn shot 37 percent in the first half, but shot 45 percent in the second half. That’s been a trend all season for the Tigers.

— Despite being the more athletic team, Auburn barely edged Penn in total rebounds, 37-35.

— The Tigers again dominated bench points, outscoring Penn 41-16.

— Penn generally shoots a high quantity of threes, but managed to go toe-to-toe in the paint with the Tigers with 26 points in the paint (Auburn had 28). Penn was outscoring Auburn 22-8 in the paint at one point.

— Penn opened the second half on a 17-9 run before Auburn finally woke up and extended the lead back to 17 with a 6-0 run, holding control the rest of the way.

— The Tigers committed only six turnovers in the game, while assisting on 19 of 30 made field goals.

— Jaylin Williams averaged 18 points per game in his last five games, but came back down to earth a bit in this one, scoring eight points on 3-7 shooting.

— Holloway and Tre Donaldson have combined for 49 assists and just nine turnovers in Auburn’s current six-game winning streak.

Quotes of note from Bruce Pearl

On Penn: “You could see, the way they started the second half, that’s a good team. That team will compete with Harvard and probably Princeton for the Ivy league title. That team did beat Villanova earlier in the year, played Kentucky to about 10. They weren’t going to be super impressed with us. I thought our frontline dominated. We shared it, and we took care of business.”

On SEC play: “Our first two opponents (Arkansas and Texas A&M) have beaten us. Arkansas two out of the last three times we played them….we’ve won there before, but it’ll be everything we want and then some. Then we bring Texas A&M in next Tuesday and they’ve had our number. It’s not the easiest way to start the conference, but we’re playing well right now. That’s a positive thing.”

On recent non-conference success: “Over the last seven years, we have the best non-conference winning percentage in the SEC. That matters to me because we wanted to raise the credibility of Auburn basketball and the math matters. If you’re in our league and you’re a bad number, you bring the whole league down. I didn’t want Auburn to be that and it had been that for a long time.”

On nine players scoring and four scoring in double figures: “I have confidence in all of those guys to shoot it.”

On Broome’s outside shooting: “It’s been one of those things where he hasn’t gotten that many great looks. he got clean looks tonight and took them in rhythm. He’s got such an offensive pace to his game. He doesn’t rush. He works at it. I heard Peyton Manning say when your best players are your hardest workers and your best players are locked in, it sets the tone. Johni has taken that responsibility. We’ll go as far as he takes us, on and off the court as a leader. Johni can shoot with the best of them, and putting in the time. As a play caller, if I can bring the opponent’s big away from the basket, that opens everything else up. His ability to shoot it and the need to guard him is as important as anything. He feels good about himself.”

On Baker-Mazara and KD’s energy: “That second group has definitely sparked us. I thought this was one of KD Johnson’s best games. He did it at both ends of the floor. He didn’t make negative plays, had his emotions under control and played hard and under control, and effectively. Chad Baker is a great offensive player. He’s got such feel, I trust him with the ball. Today, he was able to get more shots up and he leads our team in assist-to-turnover ratio. I trust him with the ball to make passes and be unselfish. I thought those guys played really well.”

On Holloway and Donaldson entering SEC play: “Teams scout to and they aren’t going to go under on Aden. There’s nothing you can do about it, so he has to become more of a playmaker. Those are my two youngest players. They are fine offensively…defensively, they are going to have to step up. I know they can and they are both working at it.”