After a roller coaster Saturday with tremendous highs and remarkable lows, nobody can say that Auburn basketball is boring.
First, the crest: Just when it looked like South Carolina (10-6) was going to put a dagger in the heart of Bruce Pearl’s team at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C., the Tigers’ defense clamped down and completely shut out the Gamecocks for the last 5:18 of the game to seal a 66-63 road win.

It was a statement game for many reasons. Auburn (15-1, 3-0 SEC) demonstrated it could win without its best player (more on that in a minute), and it was a hard-fought victory in a hostile road environment. South Carolina led 40-34 at the break and seemed to be moving downhill on the Collin Murray-Boyles train. But then the Auburn defense woke up, holding the Gamecocks to only 38 percent shooting and, perhaps more importantly, Murray-Boyles to just seven points in the final refrain.
“In the second half, (South Carolina) only scored 23 points. They were on pace to score 80. That was the difference in the game, our guys finding a way,” said Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl.
Tahaad Pettiford came off the bench to pace the Tigers with 15 points, while starter Miles Kelly chipped in 14 on 4-of-8 shooting from long distance.
On the other side of the column, Murray-Boyles was an absolute terror for the Gamecocks, netting 25 points on 10-of-18 shooting and collecting 7 boards.
Now, the trough. The big question coming out of the weekend was “What is the extent of Johni Broome’s injury?” Broome, a player of the year candidate and almost shoo-in for All-America who is averaging 17.9 points per game and 10.7 rebounds per game, went down around the 13-minute mark in the second half with an ankle injury and had to be helped off the court by Auburn training staff. Though Broome emerged from the training table to cheer his team on from the bench, Pearl said after the game that he had a “significant sprain’ and would undergo an MRI to determine results.
Sunday morning, Auburn men’s basketball athletic communications released a statement that read, “Auburn senior All-American Johni Broome underwent an MRI this morning which revealed a non-surgical, ankle sprain” but still, Broome’s status for the next few games is up in the air.
Why is this so significant? Because losing a player the caliber of Broome, especially during conference season, can halt a team’s momentum—and Auburn has plenty of it.

Just out of curiosity, let’s look at Auburn’s next five ballgames:
1/14 vs. Mississippi State (14-2, 2-1)
1/18 at Georgia (14-2, 2-1)
1/25 vs Tennessee (15-1, 2-1)
1/29 at LSU (11-5, 0-3)
2/1 at Ole Miss (14-2, 3-0)
Not exactly a frolic through the prairie, if you ask me. And if those five teams didn’t need any more incentive to beat Auburn, after Sunday, they may have more: Auburn figures to be ranked #1 in the nation after Tennessee’s 30-point meltdown in Gainesville on Tuesday.
If Auburn is ranked #1, it would be only the second time in program history that the Tigers have taken the top spot in the polls. Pearl seems to embrace this with optimism, rather than a bullseye. “We really stepped up and that’s what gives us a chance to be No. 1 on Monday. That matters to me because it’s history,” Pearl said. “I’d rather be No. 1 at the end of the year, but we’ll take it when we can get it.”

Assuming Broome is out on Tuesday, Auburn will have to go with a smaller lineup against a very good Mississippi State team that nearly upended Kentucky this past weekend. For the last 14 games, Pearl has submitted a starting five of Denver Jones, Miles Kelly, Chad Baker-Mazara, Johni Broome, and Dylan Cardwell. Outside of that group, Chaney Johnson (22.6) and Pettiford (21.1) are averaging the most minutes per game. Expect those numbers to increase. Also expect the 6’11”, 255 lb. Cardwell to rise to the occasion in Broome’s absence.
Do not expect the Tigers to lie down.
“Without our leader, without our best player, our guys stepped up and found a way,” Pearl said after the game on Saturday.
Hopefully Auburn has dodged a bullet and Broome’s injury is short-lived. But if the Tigers’ star is out for a more significant time, “Stepping Up and Finding a Way” may become the theme for the next few games.
Either way, expected Pearl’s team to rise to whatever challenges lie ahead. TG
Cover photo: Auburn’s Johni Broome. Photo courtesy Auburn Athletics.