Johni Broome's 4th straight double-double leads No. 21 Auburn past Ole Miss

Johni Broome’s 4th straight double-double leads No. 21 Auburn past Ole Miss

Johni Broome may be a newcomer at Auburn, but the big man has been around long enough to know what works.

It’s why, when asked Monday about his string of three straight double-doubles, he somewhat downplayed the significance of that individual feat while acknowledging it felt good to be the first Auburn player since Austin Wiley in 2019-20 to accomplish it.

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“From my collegiate years, double-doubles help your team win,” Broome said, matter-of-factly. “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.”

Broome put that to the test again Tuesday night on the road, putting together his fourth consecutive double-double — finishing with 19 points (on 8-of-13 shooting) and 11 rebounds — to lead No. 21 Auburn to an 82-73 win against Ole Miss in Oxford, Miss. In the process, the Morehead State transfer became the first Auburn player in seven seasons (Cinmeon Bowers in 2015-16) to post four double-doubles in a row.

Broome didn’t waste time in notching his latest one, either. He scored the first seven points of the game for Auburn, then closed the half with a dunk in the final seconds to get the Tigers within one at the break and give him 12 points and eight boards in the opening stanza despite hurting his thumb on the final defensive possession of the half. He then opened the second half with a layup to put Auburn ahead by one — a lead the Tigers would never relinquish — and he secured his 10th rebound with 17:18 to play after contesting a transition layup by Ole Miss’ Myles Burns and corralling the miss.

“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.”

Broome now has 40 career double-doubles, as his teams improved to 30-10 in those games. Auburn, meanwhile, moved to 13-3 on the season and improved to 3-1 in SEC play as the Tigers kicked off a pivotal stretch with a welcomed win away from Neville Arena.

“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.”

Here are AL.com’s key takeaways from Tuesday’s action:

Chris Moore injures his shoulder

Chris Moore has started all 16 games for Auburn this season, but his status moving forward is now in question. Moore left Tuesday’s game early in the first half after injuring his right shoulder in the game’s opening minutes, and he did not return to the court.

Moore checked out with 17:36 to go in the first half after sustaining the injury, and he clutched his right shoulder as he went to the bench to get checked out by the team trainer. When Auburn came out of the locker room at halftime, Moore had his right arm in a sling, and the team officially ruled out a return against the Rebels.

Moore’s absence resulted in a larger workload for Allen Flanigan (more on him in a minute) and saw Bruce Pearl turn to Lior Berman for some relief at the three-spot. Berman played just four minutes and only recorded a foul on a rebound attempt, while Flanigan logged a season-high 34 minutes off the bench.

Pearl did not have an update on Moore after the game, only saying that the junior separated his shoulder. Moore will undergo an MRI on Wednesday after the team gets back to Auburn, at which point Pearl will know more about the extent of the injury.

Allen Flanigan is finding his groove

Allen Flanigan is finally getting back to his old self and playing some of the best basketball of his career, and it showed Tuesday. The Tigers’ senior wing scored 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting and finished with five rebounds and a pair of assists without committing a turnover. He was also 5-of-5 shooting in the second half.

“I just went in there and did what I’m supposed to do for this team,” Flanigan said. “That’s one of my jobs on this team it to be aggressive night in and night out, and pick us up wherever we need to be picked up, whether that’s rebounding, playing harder defensively, getting guys shots or taking shots.”

It marked the third consecutive game in double figures for Flanigan, giving him his best scoring stretch since returning from his partially torn Achilles injury last season. It’s the first stretch of three straight double-figure scoring games for Flanigan since late in his sophomore season, when he strung together eight such games for the Tigers.

During that eight-game stretch in the 2020-21 season, Flanigan averaged 15 points per outing and shot 38-of-86 (44.2 percent) from the field, including 11-of-35 (31.4 percent) from beyond the arc. Over his last three games, Flanigan is averaging 14.7 points and shooting 51.6 percent (16-of-31) from the field, including 36.3 percent (4-of-11) from deep.

“He’s really trying to work on his game and be productive,” Pearl said. “And being aggressive without trying to force the issue. Played great defense (too).”

Auburn seized control after halftime

The first half at The Pavilion was a relatively close affair, and one during which Ole Miss held an advantage for much of the game’s opening 20 minutes.

That changed at halftime, which was all about Auburn.

After trailing by one at the break, the Tigers seized control early in the second half and never looked back. Auburn opened the half on a 12-4 run in the first 4 minutes and 34 seconds out of the locker room, turning that narrow deficit into a seven-point lead. During that stretch, Broome hit the go-ahead layup to open the second half, while Flanigan scored four points and Wendell Green Jr. knocked down a pair of 3-pointers (after going 0-of-2 from beyond the arc in the first half).

“It was good just seeing different guys step up and make shots,” Flanigan said, “but we got to be a lot better defensively if we want to win this conference.”

Ole Miss, meanwhile, hit just three of its first 10 shot attempts in the second half and never could quite recover. Auburn staked a 10-point lead on a Dylan Cardwell dunk with 12:19 to play, and the Tigers maintained a double-digit advantage for much the rest of the way. Auburn led by as many as 14, and its lead never fell below seven points over the game’s final 13 minutes.

Along with Broome’s big double-double and Flanigan’s third straight double-figure outing, Green scored a season-high 23 points to go along with seven assists (against just two turnovers) and five rebounds, while Jaylin Williams added 12 points and five assists for the Tigers. Green’s 23 points also matched his Auburn career best, which he previously set against Alabama last season.

“I think our offense is starting to come together — guys are starting to play better, myself included,” Green said. “We feel very comfortable out there. We’re just playing. They played pretty good defense and switched it up a lot. We’re just very comfortable. I like how we’re going. We’re progressing.”

Tom Green is an Auburn beat reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @Tomas_Verde.