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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