Auburn continues Ole Miss misery with 82-73 win in Oxford

Bruce Pearl will find out something about his Auburn basketball team in January.

The Tigers started a stretch Tuesday night that will see them play four of six games on the road, including an SEC-Big 12 Challenge game at West Virginia.

That stretch started in a positive way with an 82-73 road win at Ole Miss. The win improved the 21st-ranked Tigers record to 13-3, 3-1 in the SEC. Ole Miss dropped to 8-8, 0-4 in the SEC.

The Tigers trailed 35-34 at halftime. Forward Chris Moore left the game with a shoulder injury in the opening minutes. The status moving forward for Moore, who started all 16 games for the Tigers, is uncertain.

Johni Broome was solid as always. Broome scored 19 points and pulled down 11 rebounds for his fourth straight double-double.

"Johni Broome, again, the best big on the floor,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “Just so consistent and just gives us that inside scoring threat at the five that not a lot of teams in the league have.”

“From my collegiate years, double-doubles help your team win,” Broome said, “That means you’re doing good things on the court. I’m rebounding. I’m scoring. I’m producing on both ends of the court. If I do my job, the rest of the guys are going to follow up and do their job, and we’ll win games.”

Wendell Green Jr. led the way with a season high 23 points. He also had three steals and a sweet behind-the-back assist to Jaylyn Williams, who finished with 12. Green also had seven assists and only two turnovers.

Allen Flanigan had 15 points off the bench and said the win was a good start to a challenging stretch for the Tigers.

Road wins are huge in the SEC because, I mean, it’s a dogfight every night,” senior wing Allen Flanigan said. “There’s a lot of good teams in the SEC, and there’s a lot of teams that can upset you too, so just taking every game seriously and showing up to play, and especially on road games. Road games are huge.”

Up next for Auburn is a home game against Mississippi State Saturday at 7:30 at Neville Arena.