This time last year, Auburn junior Chad Baker-Mazara — then a member of the Northwest Florida State College men’s basketball team — was coming off a 13-point effort in a road win at Pensacola State College.

Meanwhile, fellow Auburn junior Chaney Johnson — then playing for the University of Alabama-Hunstville — had just logged a team-leading 18 points in his team’s convincing win over the University of West Florida.

And then there’s freshman Auburn freshman Aden Holloway, who, well, was still in high school.

Come Saturday night, however, Auburn’s trio of new faces found themselves inside Georgia’s Stegeman Coliseum, where their efforts were going to be needed as No. 14 Auburn was set to get its first taste of life without its fifth-year senior forward and the winningest player in program history in Jaylin Williams.

Williams, who is averaging 13 points per game for the Tigers, traveled to Athens on Saturday but was still sidelined with the knee injury he suffered in Auburn’s loss to Kentucky on Feb. 17.

And against the Bulldogs, it was up to Baker-Mazara and Johnson — two players who were playing JUCO- and Division II-level basketball this time last year — to replace the production of Williams in the paint, while if there were ever a moment for Holloway to find his shooting stride again, Saturday night would be an opportune time.

For Johnson, Saturday’s starting nod made for his first Division I start of his career. And by half time, Johnson was already flirting with a double-digit scoring effort as he logged nine first-half points on a 4-for-4 shooting effort that included a made 3-pointer.

Johnson finished his night having played 26 minutes and tallying 16 points — a career high for him in SEC play.

“Chaney was terrific defensively. Offensively, he was calm. He got that ball inside, and he took it close,” Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl said postgame. “I’m happy for Chaney, because he’s one of the hardest workers that we’ve ever had. To come in and play 26 minutes and not even miss a beat…”

Meanwhile, Baker-Mazara’s start was the first in an Auburn uniform and just the 14th of his Division I career after he logged 13 starts in his freshman season, which he spent at Duquesne.

By the break, Baker-Mazara had recorded 18 points — the most in a half by any Auburn player this season.

Come the second half of play, Baker-Mazara’s scoring slowed as other players on Auburn’s roster started to find their rhythm. By the final whistle, Baker-Mazara had tallied 25 points — a Division I career-high for the junior, who dedicated his performance to a former high school coach of his, Danny Brix, who suddenly died at the age of 30 on Wednesday.

“Chad Baker-Mazara was the best player on the floor,” Pearl said.

At one point during the second half, Georgia had trimmed its deficit significantly as the Bulldogs pulled within three points. And considering Auburn was on the road, a momentum swing such as that could’ve quickly become costly for the Tigers.

But Baker-Mazara was having no part of that and pulled Auburn together during a second-half timeout as he “rallied the troops” and “calmed them down,” Pearl said.

After Baker-Mazara helped the Tigers pull themselves up by the bootstraps, Auburn once again started to separate itself from Georgia — a feat that was largely made possible by timely 3-pointers from Holloway, who made his first start in eight games on Saturday night.

“We started Aden Holloway just to kinda see if we could get him going,” Pearl said of the lineup change.

Mission accomplished.

Holloway hit his first of five three balls with six minutes to play in the first half, finally putting an end to his shooting slump, which hadn’t seen him make a single shot from beyond the arc since Feb. 7 against Alabama.

Holloway then went 4-for-4 from beyond the arc in the second half, giving him five made three pointers in one game for the first time since his 24-point effort against Indiana on Dec. 9.

“He kept his attitude, really, pretty good, considering the lack of success he’s had,” Pearl said of Holloway. “It speaks a lot to his character. He stayed in it. He stayed in it. If we can get him to be in a situation where he’s feeling better about himself, that’s a real positive thing.”

And on Saturday night in Athens, it all came together as a one player who spent last season playing in the JUCO ranks, one player who spent last season playing Division II basketball and another player who was still in high school last year finished as Auburn’s three leading scorers as they helped offset the loss of Williams en route to the Tigers’ 97-76 win over the Bulldogs.

“Coming in without Jaylin Williams, we knew we had to change things up. Put three new starters in the lineup tonight,” Pearl said. “We made a bunch of changes. Tonight, they paid off.”