Johni Broome sat in the corner in front of his locker at Legacy Arena, his head obscured by the towel draped over it as he stared blankly at the ground beneath him.

The All-SEC big man had been a cornerstone of this Auburn team, the Tigers’ most consistent player throughout its 2022-23 season after transferring from Morehead State. It’s in part why Saturday’s second-round loss to Houston hit him so hard.

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Broome bore the weight of the Tigers’ 81-64 season-ending loss in Birmingham after shooting just 6-of-16 from the free-throw line on a night in which Auburn endured arguably its worst foul-shooting performances of the season.

“On the big stage you just go 6-of-16, miss 10 free throws, you know, it hurts,” Broome said. “It hurts yourself and it hurts your teammates, your team. I take responsibility for the loss…. I guess I just have to get back to the line; I guess I got to shoot more.”

While Broome shouldered the blame and held himself to account after his poor performance at the line, he wasn’t alone in struggling from the charity stripe. Auburn collectively shot 19-of-36 from the line, including just 15-of-26 in the second half as it watched a 10-point halftime advantage evaporate against top-seeded Houston.

The Tigers’ 53.6 percent clip from the line was its second worst of the season, behind only the two-point loss to Vanderbilt a month ago. Auburn was 5-of-10 on free throws in that 67-65 loss. Given the stage and the volume of free-throw attempts Saturday, it’s hard to argue the second-round performance was the team’s most inefficient of the year.

“All it is, is free throws are just concentration,” said forward Jaylin Williams, who went 3-of-4 from the line. “You could be tired or whatever, but like, you have 10 seconds to shoot a free throw. That’s on all of us. I missed one, a few guys missed a few. We make our free throws, we’re battling to win the game.”

Auburn didn’t make its free throws, though, and it led to another unsatisfying second-round exit for the second year in a row.

The Tigers’ left 17 points on the free-throw line, marking a new season-high for missed attempts. The previous mark was 12 in the team’s second game of the season. Among those 17 misses at the line were a pair of airballs — one in the first half from freshman Tre Donaldson, and one in the second half from Broome — along with four 0-for-2 trips.

Complicating matters for Auburn was Houston’s immaculate performance from the line after halftime. In a second half that saw the teams combine for 30 called fouls, the Cougars connected on all 18 of their free-throw attempts. That included an 8-of-8 showing from Tramon Mark, who scored 20 of his game-high 26 points in the second half, and a 6-of-6 effort from Jamal Shead.

“Obviously, it’s frustrating,” Pearl said of his team’s free-throw shooting. “But, you know, what’s more frustrating is — that is something you can’t control…. In the second half they did everything they needed to do offensively. We couldn’t guard them. The guys could look at this or that. They scored 50 points in the second half. That’s why they won.”

Despite his team’s poor shooting at the line and Broome’s struggles in particular, Pearl was quick to lift some of that blame off the 6-foot-10 big man. Broome, after all, led Auburn with 14 points and six rebounds while drawing 10 fouls against Houston.

“I know he feels terrible,” Pearl said. “But listen, this team is not here without Johni Broome. We’re not an NCAA Tournament team. And that piece of adding him made all the difference in our ability to be able to continue to make history and have a good year.”

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