Tag: Miles Kelly

Auburn holds spot atop Week 13 AP Poll

After spending 119 seasons without a unanimous No. 1 ranking in the AP Poll, Auburn has accomplished the feat in back-to-back weeks.

After spending 119 seasons and nearly 2,720 games without a unanimous No. 1 ranking in the AP Poll, Auburn basketball has now accomplished the feat in back-to-back weeks. Bruce Pearl’s Tigers once again collected all 62 first-place nods in this week’s AP Poll, edging out No. 2 ranked Duke for the second week in a row.

While the No. 1 graphic will stay to the left of Auburn’s name for at least seven more days, it nearly evaporated on Saturday after the Tigers needed a heroic 3-point bucket from [autotag]Miles Kelly[/autotag] to narrowly escape Tennessee at home. The box score wasn’t pretty, but Kelly and company, like they’ve done for all but one contest this season, found a way to earn victory at the end.

Auburn’s win over Tennessee was its program-best seventh ranked victory of the campaign, and eleventh in ‘Quadrant 1’. Both statistics lead all programs in the country this season, making it an easy decision for voters to place the Tigers at the top of their poll sheet.

Bruce Pearl’s squad has another decent opportunity to hold its grip on the No. 1 ranking for at least another week, with games against LSU and No. 23 Ole Miss due up in the next seven days. Auburn should be decent-sized favorites in both contest, although winning on the road in basketball’s premier conference is never an easy task. If the Tigers were to win out for another week, they would improve to a conference best 8-0 on the season.

We’ll see if Johni Broome, Miles Kelly, and the rest of the No. 1 ranked Tigers can continue stacking up wins when they take on LSU in Baton Rouge on Wednesday.

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Tigers volunteer chaos to ‘The Jungle’, win rock fight over Rocky Top, 53-51

The Tigers now have a program-best 8 ranked victories on the year to go along with a college basketball-best 11 ‘Quad 1’ wins.

If anyone was looking for the since trampled barricades that were supposedly meant to control a mob of  ‘College GameDay’ ready fans on Saturday morning, they may had been placed above the Neville Arena rims.

In an era in which scoring has never been more prevalent in college basketball, or basketball in general, the first half of Auburn’s top ten showdown with No. 6 Tennessee featured just 42 total points. [autotag]Johni Broome[/autotag], who came into the contest shooting 29% from 3-point range before a week-long absence, managed the only make from beyond the arc by either team in the first 20 minutes.

Along with the triple, Broome contributed a team-leading 9 points in the first frame. No other Tiger had more than 5 points, with [autotag]Chad Baker-Mazara[/autotag], [autotag]Dylan Cardwell[/autotag], and [autotag]Chaney Johnson[/autotag] providing the only other baskets of the half for Auburn. Tennessee’s production wasn’t any better, as the Volunteers shot an atrocious 23% from the field before hitting the half time locker room.

Auburn’s “rock fight” with ‘Rocky Top’ continued into the first few minutes of the second half, with both teams infrequently trading buckets until the score knotted up at 33 entering the under 12 media timeout. The seesaw nature of Saturday’s showdown continued through the remainder of the half, albeit with increased offensive efficiency, mainly due to the contributions of both backcourts.

Tennessee senior [autotag]Zakai Zeigler[/autotag] was the star down the stretch for Rick Barnes’s squad, finishing with a team-high 14 points, which may have been much more if the referees refilled their contact prescription. Chad Baker-Mazara, [autotag]Tahaad Pettiford[/autotag], Chaney Johnson and [autotag]Miles Kelly[/autotag] all contributed important points down the stretch on the Auburn side, although most of the heavy lifting was done by Johni Broome, who finished with a game-high 16 points and 13 rebounds.

It was Broome, and Miles Kelly, who would outduel Zeigler in the end though. After Tennessee grabbed a late two-possesion lead with just over a minute remaining, Auburn was able to storm back thanks to a nifty floater by freshman Tahaad Pettiford followed by an incredibly timely go-ahead, corner 3-point shot by Kelly. The Georgia Tech transfer, who’s eventual game-winning shot was only his second field goal of the night, sent ‘The Jungle’ into an absolute frenzy with 30 seconds remaining.

Tennessee would go on to have an empty possession, leading to an Auburn rebound and a 1/2 trip at the free throw stripe from Pettiford. Zeigler would then be given a chance to win the game, missing a corner three long before Johni Broome heaved his thirteenth rebound of the night down the floor to milk the remaining seconds on the game clock.

Auburn’s victory was possibly it’s hardest fought, and most well-earned, of the season to this point. The Tigers now have a program-best 8 ranked victories on the year to go along with a college basketball-best 11 ‘Quad 1’ wins. Bruce Pearl’s team is all-but certain to hang onto its No. 1 AP and Coaches Poll ranking going into Wednesday’s road contest with LSU.

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Tigers withstand Bulldog’s bite, earn fifth SEC victory 70-68

The Tigers escaped Athens with a narrow victory on Saturday

[autotag]Tahaad Pettiford[/autotag] is making a very strong case for SEC Newcomer of the Year.  The freshman contributed a career-high 24 points in Auburn’s fifth-straight conference victory. The Tigers, who only escaped Athens with a two-point win, needed every single one of them.

Despite never trailing since the game was 2-0 in favor the Georgia, Auburn was never comfortable in front of a hostile Georgia crowed on Saturday afternoon. Other than Pettiford and some timely buckets from fellow guards [autotag]Chad Baker-Mazar[/autotag]a (13 points) and [autotag]Miles Kelly[/autotag] (13 points), Auburn’s top ranked KenPom offense was not itself against a Bulldogs team that plays with one of the slowest paces in the entire country.

Even after jumping out to an early 24-8 lead in the first half, Bruce Pearl’s team needed a missed tip in by Georgia forward Asa Newell as the clock expired to put another tally in the win column. Auburn was outscored 60-46 after climbing out to the early 16-point lead mid-way through the first frame.

While Bruce Pearl’s team barely escaped a court storm in Athens, the Tigers again showed resiliency on the road without the contributions of National Player of the Year co-favorite [autotag]Johni Broome[/autotag]. Broome’s absense was especially felt on Saturday with [autotag]Dylan Cardwell[/autotag] dealing with cramps against the strong front court of UGA featuring the aforementioned star freshman Asa Newell (16 points, 10 rebounds).

With a week to rest before their biggest home game of the season against No. 6 ranked Tennessee on Saturday, Broome, Cardwell, and the rest of a tired Auburn roster will look to hang onto their No. 1 ranking a week from today.

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In photos: No. 2 Auburn squeaks by South Carolina to earn third SEC win

Auburn held South Carolina scoreless for the final 5:18 to earn the 66-63 win on Saturday in Columbia.

It was not easy, but Auburn found a way to earn another key win within SEC play.

South Carolina was held scoreless over the final 5:18 of game time in its game with No. 2 Auburn on Saturday, which allowed the visiting Tigers to erase a then-one-point deficit and escape with a 66-63 win over the Gamecocks on Saturday at Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, South Carolina.

South Carolina owned the rebound category, 37-33, and outscored Auburn, 42-30 in the paint. Collin Murray-Boyles led South Carolina in points with 25 while Arden Conyers connected on 3-of-6 three-point opportunities.

Auburn played most of the game without forward [autotag]Johni Broome[/autotag], who left the game with an ankle injury. In his absence, [autotag]Miles Kelly[/autotag] scored 14 points with six rebounds while [autotag]Tahaad Pettiford[/autotag] dropped 15 points in the win.

Re-live Auburn’s tight win over South Carolina by checking out the best images from the game.

New year, same Tigers: Auburn roars past Missouri 84-68

Bruce Pearl’s Auburn Tigers opened up SEC play with a statement victory on Saturday

After a spectacular non-conference portion of the season, Bruce Pearl’s Auburn Tigers have opened up SEC play with a statement victory.

Auburn defeated Missouri 84-68 in front of a packed Neville Arena on Saturday to earn its thirteenth win of the season. The blowout victory in ‘The Jungle’ was also Auburn’s second against Tiger counterparts. Johni Broome and company previously defeated Memphis in the ‘Maui Invitational’ championship earlier this season.

Broome, who continues to pace the field in the ‘Wooden Award’ race, had himself another fantastic performance in the SEC opener. The senior was the only player to reach double figures in the first half, finishing the frame with 13 points before ending the contest with a game-high 24 points to go along with 7 rebounds. Saturday marked the ninth time this season Auburn’s leading scorer had eclipsed the 20 point threshold this season. The total now gives Broome more 20+ point games than he had during the entirety of his All-SEC campaign a year ago.

Auburn, like it normally has so far this season, received most of its remaining offensive production from the backcourt trio of [autotag]Chad Baker-Mazara[/autotag], [autotag]Tahaad Pettiford[/autotag], and [autotag]Miles Kelly[/autotag]. The grouping of gifted guards combined for 29 to help the Tigers pull away in the contest. [autotag]Denver Jones[/autotag] also added 9 points and a game-high 7 assists, doing most of his work in the second half.

While Auburn’s scoring continues to be historically outstanding, the defense was once again phenomenal on Saturday night. Led by [autotag]Dylan Cardwell[/autotag]’s 3 first half rejections, Auburn held Missouri to a season low 11 field goals in the first half. The away team’s offensive output only got worse in the second frame, as senior Tamar Bates 8 and his team shot just 38% from the field on their way to 68 points.

Auburn now heads into its first conference road matchup of the season with even more momentum than it had to finish 2024. While Texas is certain to give the Tigers a solidly competitive game on Tuesday, Bruce Pearl’s team has shown it will be extremely difficult to beat this season.

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Tigers ring in the New Year with another rout, drop Hawks 87-58

The Tigers dominated the Hawks after shaking off the holiday rust on Monday

It wasn’t the sleigh ride of a start Bruce Pearl would have liked to see from his team, but the Auburn Tigers ultimately earned their twelfth win of the season on Monday night, defeating Monmouth 87-58.

For the first time this season, Auburn showed clear signs of rust after a long lay off. Whether it was the Christmas ham, the travel, or a mix of both, [autotag]Johni Broome[/autotag] and company delivered a lump of coal worthy performance for most of the first half on Monday night. As elite teams tend to do, the Tigers found their footing eventually however.

After mostly traded baskets with their two win counterparts on Monday, Johni Broome and the Tigers ended the first frame on an 18-0 run to take a 46-28 lead into the halftime locker room. The aforementioned Broome, who once again helped his ‘Wooden Award’ candidacy with another great performance, continued his habit of flirting with first half double-doubles, finishing with a game-high 7 rebounds to go along with 8 points in the first 20 minutes. His front court mate [autotag]Chaney Johnson[/autotag] actually led all scorers in the first stanza with 10 of his own, while guards [autotag]Denver Jones[/autotag] and [autotag]Chad Baker-Mazara[/autotag] added 9 each.

The final 20 minutes of the game were much of the same story as the end of the first half. Broome eventually got his double-double (14 points, 11 rebounds), while first half stars Baker-Mazara and Chaney Johnson finished in double figures as well. [autotag]Miles Kelly[/autotag] and Denver Jones combined for 18 points, while Dylan Cardwell (12 points, 11 rebounds) earned his first double-double of the season, helping Auburn again put forth a full-team effort in a blowout victory.

Bruce Pearl’s Tigers now head into conference play with 12 wins despite playing one of the hardest non-conference schedules in the country. With quality wins over top ranked programs combined with massive margins of victory over inferior teams on the Tigers resume, Bruce Pearl’s squad should have no issues navigating an extremely difficult SEC schedule.

The conference portion of the schedule gets underway on January 4 when Auburn welcomes NCAA Tournament hopeful Missouri to Neville Arena.

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Miles Kelly excited to ‘ramp up’ training during extended break

Kelly seemed thankful for the break while emphasizing the importance of using the extra time off to prepare.

The Auburn Tigers have gotten off to one of their best starts in program history this season despite a loaded travel schedule featuring nine games across four states, including a trip over the Pacific Ocean, in just over a month.

While the travel schedule didn’t seem to affect the Tigers during their run to a Maui Invitational or their most recent victory over Richmond, the assumed “wear and tear” of multiple high-leverage contests in a short amount of time is hard to ignore. Senior guard Miles Kelly spoke about those presumed tired legs after Auburn’s blowout victory over Richmond on Sunday.

When asked about having a week to prepare for the next opponent, BIG 10 surprise contender Ohio State, Kelly seemed thankful for the break while emphasizing the importance of using the extra time off to prepare. “We’ve played a lot of games over these past couple of days (weeks). I mean, as [Bruce Pearl] just said in the locker room, ‘we have to get back to work.’”

Auburn’s best three-point scorer further elaborated, “We are going to ramp it up with the training and get our bodies right, so we can be fresh for Ohio State.” That ramp up will be important, not only to prepare for the 6-3 Buckeyes, but for No. 7 ranked Purdue Boilermakers, who the Tigers will face on December 21, as well.

With the week-long hiatus this week and a nine-day layoff in between Purdue and the final game non-conference game of 2024 against Monmouth, Kelly and the Tigers seemingly have placed a major importance on gearing up their bodies for what is shaping up to be an absolute three-month long gauntlet in conference play.

If Auburn can finish non-conference play on a high note, the Tigers could very well enter the SEC stretch of the season ranked as the No. 1 or No. 2 ranked team in the nation. For now, Kelly and his teammates will be focused on gearing up for the prolonged home stretch of the campaign.

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In photos: Auburn wrecks Richmond in return to Neville Arena

The No. 2 Tigers returned to the win column on Sunday by smashing Richmond, 98-54.

On Sunday, the No. 2 Auburn Tigers returned to the win column by smashing the Richmond Spiders, 98-54 inside Neville Arena.

Auburn (8-1) dominated Richmond (4-5) in several aspects of the game. The Tigers won the glass battle by reeling in 49 rebounds compared to Richmond’s 31. Auburn also found more success in the field by connecting on 48% of their shot attempts (33-of-69), while Richmond shot 27% (16-of-59).

Offensively, Auburn spread the wealth as four of its five starters and two bench players reached double-digit point totals in Sunday’s win. [autotag]Miles Kelly[/autotag] and [autotag]Tahaad Pettiford[/autotag] paced the Tigers with 15 points, while [autotag]Chad Baker-Mazara[/autotag] and [autotag]Jahki Howard[/autotag] added 13 points. Auburn star [autotag]Johni Broome[/autotag] scored 11 points while recording five rebounds and six assists.

Auburn bounced back in a big way on Sunday, which will give them extra motivation ahead of Saturday’s game vs. Ohio State in Atlanta. Here are the best photos of Auburn’s 98-54 win over Richmond on Sunday.

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In photos: No. 3 Auburn handles North Alabama at Neville Arena

Johni Broome scores 30 points while four other Tigers reach double-digits in the 102-69 win over North Alabama on Monday.

The No. 3 Auburn Tigers handled business on Monday by taking down in-state foe North Alabama, 102-69, in its final tune-up before competing in the Maui Invitational beginning next Monday.

It was a special day for [autotag]Johni Broome[/autotag], who etched his second consecutive double-double by scoring 30 points and pulling down 17 rebounds in the win. It was the first time since last season’s game vs. Virginia Tech that Broome scored at least 30 points in a game. His 17 rebounds were also the most in a game since he recorded 18 rebounds in Auburn’s win over Georgia on Feb. 1, 2023.

Outside of Broome, all four remaining starters reached double-figures in points. Denver Jones tallied 13 points while [autotag]Chad Baker-Mazara[/autotag], [autotag]Miles Kelly[/autotag], and [autotag]Dylan Cardwell[/autotag] scored 12 points each. Off the bench, [autotag]Chaney Johnson[/autotag] scored eight points while grabbing five rebounds. Freshman [autotag]Tahaad Pettiford[/autotag] scored seven points in 20 minutes of action while posting five assists.

Re-live the best moments of Auburn’s 102-69 win over North Alabama on Monday by checking out the best images from the game.

Auburn dismantles Vermont for resounding opening night victory

Auburn let loose with a 94-43 victory in front of a packed Neville Arena

The 2024-2025 Auburn Tigers are an extremely well-rounded basketball team.

After an exhibition season which saw Bruce Pearl’s team win two games in extremely lopsided fashion, Auburn let loose in front of a packed Neville Arena to open up the regular season, taking down Vermont 94-43 in ridiculously efficient fashion. Auburn outscored the Catamounts 46-21 in an up-and-down first half before showing off on the defensive end to open up the second stanza, dispelling any hopes of a Vermont comeback with a 16-0 run to open the frame.

Five of the nine Tigers that saw double-digit minutes on Wednesday night finished with at least 10 points. Georgia Tech transfer [autotag]Miles Kelly[/autotag] led the way, welcoming himself onto the Plains in heroic fashion to the tune of 21 points on 7 3-point field goals. [autotag]Johni Broome[/autotag] may have been overshadowed by Kelly and Denver Jones’s 16 points, but the All-SEC forward was his usual, dominant self in a 12-point, 7-rebound, 2-block effort.

Newcomer [autotag]JP Pegues[/autotag] filled point guard the role previously held by Aden Holloway and Tre Donaldson phenomenally. The Furman transfer showed immediately he could handle Bruce Pearl’s extensively complicated offense with a perfect 3/3 shooting night to go along with 4 rebounds, an assist, and two steals. Second year Tiger Chad Baker-Mazara was also his normal, stat-stuffing self in an 11-point, 3-rebound, 2-assist effort. Surprisingly, the Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic native did not swipe away a steal or block.

While Auburn wasn’t quite able to reach triple-digit scoring numbers in the opener. the Tigers offense played about as well it has since Bruce Pearl took over as the head coach. While free throw shooting was sub-par (6/10), Miles Kelly, Denver Jones, and the Tigers shot 56% from the field in the win, including an impressive 16/35 mark from beyond the arc.

Auburn will need to continue shooting the ball efficiently well over the course of a non-conference schedule that may be the hardest the Tigers have ever encountered. The waters get much more wavy as soon as Saturday, when Auburn takes on No. 4 ranked Houston at the Toyota Center in Houston. Head coach Kelvin Sampon’s Cougars, who are historically known for their defense, held Jackson State to just 40 points in an equally as impressive 97-40 opening night victory.

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