Let’s start with maybe the biggest headline from the night’s result: Auburn forward Jaylin Williams is now Auburn’s winningest player ever.

With Auburn beating Southeastern Louisiana 86-71, Williams took sole possession of a record he already held. Williams and his former teammate Allen Flanigan were tied for the all-time lead for Auburn with 87 wins. Since Flanigan transferred to Ole Miss, that meant WIlliams could take the lead by himself with just one win.

Bruce Pearl is also now Auburn’s third-winningest in school history.

The margin of the final score doesn’t quite tell the full story for Auburn, especially with regard to a slow start on offense. But Auburn knows how to get through slow starts, albeit playing a highly inconsistent game.

Speaking of which, that’s one of three takeaways from the win.

Auburn knows where to find energy

Auburn simply can’t shoot it as well as it did against Baylor. That’s just unsustainable. But Auburn also probably wants to shoot the ball better than it did to start against Southeastern.

Auburn made three of its first 16 shots Friday night and seven of its first 26. It was a slow start especially when it wasn’t a situation where Auburn wasn’t getting open looks. It just missed some shots it shouldn’t miss. That included starting 3-9 on layups.

So, when the Tigers needed some juice? Look no further than KD Johnson and Chad Baker-Mazara.

Johnson came in off the bench at the 16:49 mark in the first half and got a steal, an and-1, and a 3-pointer all within his first four minutes on the floor. That gave Auburn a huge boost and was the ignition of Auburn pulling away from Southeastern in the first half.

Johnson is one of Auburn’s most vocal players. After his steal and his and-1, plays that seem small in the overall look at a box score, Johnson flexed, screamed and stared down his opponents. The energy he gave Auburn in those moments were far more valuable.

Baker-Mazara may not be quite as outwardly intense as Johnson, but he is also one running all over the floor and being quite vocal when he makes an impact. He had a steal in the first half, got to the free-throw line, helped on the boards and made a 3-pointer.

Sometimes playing with the type of bowling ball, reckless style the two have can do more harm than good. Instead, they were statistically Auburn’s two most efficient players in the first half. They combined to score 18 of Auburn’s 39 first-half points.

And it was Johnson again in the second half hitting a 3-pointer when Southeastern closed the lead down to seven and then feeding Dylan Cardwell for a dunk. The energy was once again back at Neville Arena. Auburn built a cushion back and held on to win.

It’s impressive enough that for how poorly Auburn started, it still scored more than 80 points.

Auburn’s defense is opportunistic, and sporadic

Friday showed exactly the best and worst of a defensive work in progress. And it was much of the same storyline that showed against Baylor.

Auburn plays opportunistic defense. It takes risks to get steals and turnovers. It’s been pretty effective in doing so. Auburn had five steals in the first half.

The key stretch defensively of the game was Auburn not allowed a field goal for a bit over eight minutes. That is excellent defense. There were a combination of tight, contested shots forced by Auburn’s defense as well as some open makes.

Auburn also was in full control of the boards throughout the game. That was expected given Auburn’s length and athleticism. It had 13 more rebounds than Southeastern and 15 offensive rebounds.

Those two traits describe why Auburn wants to play so aggressively on defense and create situations where it can get out in transition.

There are also pitfalls of this. After the streak of not allowing a make, Auburn then allowed Southeastern to make half of its next 14 shots.

Auburn forced five steals in the first half, but only one in the second.

The inconsistent nature of Auburn’s defense allowed Southeastern to briefly get back into the game. Southeastern shot 43% in the second half and was at 50% late in the half. It forced Auburn to have to find one last spurt of energy. It did so, but Auburn’s defense didn’t make for the stress-free second half Auburn thought it might have when it led by 17.

It’s also similar to the Baylor game in that defense started well, but faded as the game went on. Auburn’s defense collapsed over the final 10 minutes against Baylor to blow a game Auburn probably should have won. Auburn didn’t blow this game, but it didn’t make it easy on themselves.

Let’s talk about shooting, and floor spacing

Auburn’s 3-point shooting was once again very streaky. Auburn opened the game shooting 1-10 from beyond the arc but then made six of its next nine.

Dylan Cardwell was the only one of Auburn’s 10-man rotation who did not attempt a 3-pointer. The usual suspects made their 3s in Aden Holloway and Tre Donaldson.

But what may be a more significant development is Johni Broome’s improvement. He’s made three of his first four shots from deep this season. It was an area Auburn’s center has spent a significant amount of time working to improve both to help his stock looking toward the NBA Draft as well as help an Auburn team that has shot the ball very poorly since 2019.

Broome isn’t going to attempt many threes, but the fact that he’s proving he can make them changes how defensive will approach him. He is not a one-dimensional big man. Jaylin Williams, who Auburn has used all over the floor between out on the wings and in the low-post, made multiple 3-pointers, too.

Mostly, that means Auburn can space the floor better. And that would mean more space for Auburn’s more reliable shooters to get more open shots.

When it needed shooting, Auburn got shooting. Southeastern closed the Auburn lead to seven, but Johnson and Holloway each made back-to-back 3s to get a cushion again. Auburn played a shooting-heavy lineup down the stretch with Holloway, Johnson and Denver Jones. It worked.

Auburn finished the night shooting 11-32 on 3-pointers and seven different players made a 3. That’s spacing the floor. The shooting got much better as the game went on. That’s about all Pearl can ask.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]