Auburn men’s basketball started the NCAA tournament with a 20-point win, despite it not always looking pretty.

The Tigers beat Alabama State 83-63, advancing to the NCAA tournament’s Round of 32. Auburn slept walk through portions of the game, but pulled out a double-digit win after losing three of its last four.

Thursday’s win sets up a matchup with nine-seed Creighton after the Blue Jays won their first-round game against eight-seed Louisville 89-75.

With the Round of 32 matchup set, here’s three takeaways from Auburn’s tournament-opening win over Alabama State:

Not pretty early

Auburn didn’t do much to silence any newfound doubters in the first half.

The Tigers held a 10-point lead going into the break, but the middle portion of the half was one to forget. Auburn ended the half on a 9-0 run to make things comfortable, but Alabama State had a chance to take the lead with 1:27 left in the half.

It was part of a stretch in which the Hornets went on a 17-4 run that Auburn looked like it was sleepwalking through. Turnovers and missed shots highlighted the stretch and the Rupp Arena crowd began to get behind the upset-minded Hornets.

Auburn closed the half how it needed to, and Alabama State never quite found its way back into the game. However, it still wasn’t quite the performance Auburn wanted to come out of the gate with, especially given how it entered the tournament.

The Miles Kelly-Rupp Arena connection

The last time Auburn visited Rupp Arena — a 94-78 win over Kentucky to clinch the Southeastern Conference — Kelly was the star.

He scored 30 points and made nine 3-pointers, including five of his first six to set the tone. Against Alabama State, he had a similarly hot start.

Kelly scored 12 points in the first six minutes of the game, knocking down his first four 3s in a row. It created an early advantage for Auburn, something that came in handy when the Hornets made their run in the middle portion of the half.

Arguably Kelly’s biggest 3-pointer came near the end of the first half. It happened after Chaney Johnson stole the ball following an Alabama State rebound, and a scrum on the floor ended with Denver Jones shoveling the ball to Kelly, who was wide open in the corner to put the Tigers up by eight.

That play seemed to suck the energy out of Alabama State and the crowd, helping to push Auburn’s lead up to 10 at halftime.

Kelly finished the game with 23 points, making seven of his 15 3-pointers.

Lock in

Auburn is obviously a level above Alabama State when it comes to talent. Even during a game in which the Hornets had chances to be competitive, that was obvious Thursday afternoon.

But on a day where Alabama State was off from 3-point range, inconsistent at the free throw line and cold from the field overall, the Hornets made it a game in the first half.

A lot of that came down to Auburn being far from its best, the kind of uninspiring showing the Tigers hoped to avoid after ending the season with a few disappointing losses.

Auburn never felt in real danger of losing — even when the game was within a point — but the win wasn’t the exclamation point that would prove to the college basketball world that Auburn could still be the team to beat.

That’s not saying Auburn isn’t still capable of being the best team in the country, but Thursday felt like a missed opportunity for the Tigers to flex their muscles a little more.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at [email protected]m