AUBURN—No. 2 Auburn cruised its way to another dominant win on Saturday in Neville Arena with an 84-68 win over the Missouri Tigers.
The win gives the orange and blue Tigers four straight wins in SEC openers and four consecutive wins over Missouri – which has not won a conference game since the 2022-2023 season.
Here are the biggest takeaways from the game:
Auburn gets hot from deep
The hosting Tigers got off to a hot start from deep, bouncing out to an early lead that they never relinquished behind a 7-of-13 start from three-point land at the break – all seven coming from seven different Tigers.
Auburn – the highest rated offense in the country, according to Kenpom – finished 10-of-21 from deep on the night, with Denver Jones, Chad Baker-Mazara and Tahaad Pettiford each pouring in two made 3-pointers.
Auburn has now made 10+ 3-pointers in eight games this season.
Valiant defensive effort
It was another strong defensive effort—something you can come to expect from a Bruce Pearl-led team—holding Missouri to 38% from the field. The visiting Tigers entered the matchup as the No. 10 team in the country in scoring offense (87.3 ppg) and ninth nationally, shooting a 50.9% clip from the field.
Missouri was held to seven makes from deep on 23 attempts, and the black and gold Tigers leading scorer, Mark Mitchell, was held to just six points on 2-of-9 shooting. Auburn turned Missouri over 16 times and scored 22 points off of them. The orange and blue Tigers also sent away 10 shots – Johni Broome with four and Dylan Cardwell with three.
Missouri does what it does best
Missouri went into the game eighth nationally with 10.3 steals per game and turned Auburn over 14 times, though Auburn entered the contest with the nation's best turnover rate (8.8).
Auburn’s 14 turnovers were the most of the season. Eleven of the 14 came in the second half of play. Tahaad Pettiford had four, while three other Tigers had two apiece, scoring 15 points on the other end of the floor.
Though the score didn’t reflect it, Missouri – with three players standing over seven feet tall – outrebounded Auburn 31-29 with 13 offensive rebounds compared to Auburn’s six. Additionally, Missouri scored 47 points off its bench – coming in with a nation-leading 41.38 points per game in that category.
Broome gets his
Broome continued his dominant play with a 24-point outing – his ninth 20+ point game this season.
Though he didn’t record a double-double – a rare occurrence this season – Broome went 9-of-13 from the field, adding one 3-pointer and going 5-of-8 from the free throw line. He played 28 minutes and was +15 while on the floor for Auburn.
The Tigers are back in action next Tuesday in Austin, Texas, against the Longhorns. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. CT and can be seen on ESPN2.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email logan.fowler@1819News.com.
Don't miss out! Subscribe to our newsletter and get our top stories every weekday morning.
