Auburn men’s basketball got a taste of everything Southeastern Conference basketball has to offer on Saturday.

There were points, a flagrant foul, a technical foul, trash talk and every kind of stoppage you can think of during Auburn’s 84-68 win over Missouri.

It was both teams’ SEC opener, a league known just as much for its physicality as its talent. Auburn and Missouri combined for 41 total fouls and there was no shortage of trash talk and aggressive play.

If anyone benefited from that physicality, it was Auburn center Johni Broome, scoring 24 points and being a handful on the block for Missouri throughout the game. He shot eight of Auburn’s 24 total free throws while also picking up four fouls himself.

The physical play in the paint almost boiled over at times, with Missouri’s Josh Gray getting called for a flagrant foul after elbowing Dylan Cardwell and Tahaad Pettiford getting assessed a technical foul for taunting.

“It’s part of basketball,“ Broome said after the game. “That’s what makes basketball fun. Once we get off the court, there’s no hard feelings. Going on the court, you’ve got to have a little bit of an edge, a little dog to you. That’s all it is.”

The physicality did cause some bumps and bruises for Auburn over the course of the game, though, as both Cardwell and Pettiford were slow to get up on separate plays.

Bruce Pearl noted the day before the game that the physicality of conference play could cause more injuries, meaning depth will be more important than ever. For Auburn, that wasn’t a problem against Missouri, especially in the frontcourt as Chaney Johnson had another double-digit performance off the bench, scoring 13 points and grabbing seven rebounds.

“His impact on our team is crucial,” Broome said of Johnson. “He comes in and just plays his butt off. He makes the highlight plays, he makes the little plays, he blocks shots, he defends, guards. To have a guy like that on our team is the reason why we’re one of the best in the country.”

Depth becomes even more important now as Auburn has a quick turnaround before its next game against Texas on Tuesday, its first road game of SEC play.

“Now, it’s tonight, it’s tomorrow. We travel on Monday to go to Austin, Texas,” Pearl said. “It’s a shorter prep, and we’ll get ourselves ready to go.”

Auburn’s matchup with the Longhorns Tuesday night is scheduled to tip off at 8 p.m. and will be streaming live on ESPN2.

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