Saturday’s game against Creighton was always going to be a tough matchup for Auburn’s men’s basketball.

The Tigers have struggled with length at times this season and Creighton is the seventh-tallest team in college basketball, according to KenPom. The Blue Jays also have 7-foot-1 Ryan Kalkbrenner down low, arguably the best defensive center in the country.

Despite all of that, Auburn outscored Creighton 42-24 in the paint and 19-6 on second chance points, leading the Tigers to an 82-70 win.

“My boy Walker Kessler kind of prepared me for these moments. They’re the same exact height and length. They got the same wingspan,” Auburn center Dylan Cardwell said on matching up with Kalkbrenner. “Just coming in the game with a chip on my shoulder.”

Cardwell had one of his best games of the season. He finished with just six points and four rebounds, but was +24 and once again played his role as the “glue guy” for Auburn.

Chaney Johnson also stepped up, and the contributions from Johnson and Cardwell helped supplement the paint offense on a night where Johni Broome wasn’t at his best offensively.

“Chaney’s a glue guy. I’m gorilla glue, but he’s Elmer’s glue. He’s still glue,” Cardwell said. “But at the end of the day, he’s so important to our team. Everybody is so important, but I love Chaney. He’s an unsung hero.”

Broome scored eight points on 4-for-13 shooting, but grabbed 12 rebounds, five of them offensive. The second chance points helped Auburn stay in the game in the first half when Creighton shot 9-for-14 from 3-point range.

Auburn’s guards also did a good job of getting to the basket and in the lane. Tahaad Pettiford and Denver Joens combined for 38 points and only 12 of them came on 3-pointers. Jones even delivered the dagger on an and-1 with 1:11 left in the game.

“Creighton does a great job of funneling everyone to the rim, to the shot blocker. We tried to put a body on the shot blocker on the backside, so he couldn’t rotate over,” head coach Bruce Pearl said postgame. “When he did rotate over, those guys particularly, Tahaad, Chad, Denver had a big bucket late, were able to get in the lane and make buckets and then we had some backside rebounding there to take advantage of the shot blocking. So, it was a very simple game plan.”

Pearl gave a lot of the credit for the gameplan to assistant coach Mike Burgomaster, Auburn’s offensive coordinator.

Now, Auburn will face a similar challenge in the Sweet Sixteen against Michigan. The Wolverines play a two-center line up with seven-footers Danny Wolf and Vladislav Goldin.

It’s different kind of team from Creighton, but the Tigers’ performance against Kalkbrenner was an encouraging sign.

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