Auburn men’s basketball made 27% of its 3-pointers against Georgia, but that didn’t stop the Tigers from winning 82-70 behind a 53-point second half.

How did the Tigers do it?

A 31-point performance from National Player of the Year candidate Johni Broome helped, but for a second straight game Auburn was a force on the offensive glass. The Tigers grabbed 17 offensive rebounds, leading to 17 second chance points, a big stat in what finished as a 12-point game.

Just like he did in scoring, Broome led the way on the glass too, grabbing 14 rebounds, eight of them coming on offense.

Head coach Bruce Pearl said after the game that Broome’s performance down the stretch was the difference in the game. The box score would agree with that claim, but he wasn’t the only one who contributed on the glass.

Dylan Cardwell and Ja’Heim Hudson each grabbed three offensive rebounds. Miles Kelly had just one, but pulled down eight total rebounds, an impressive number for a player whose role lies largely on the perimeter.

“It’s super important,” Kelly said after the game. “Offensive rebounding gives us second-chance points. I mean, we’ve got guys like Johni, Dylan, Chaney [Johnson] crashing the glass… [Chris Moore], [Hudson] crashing the glass every time. So, it just gives us another opportunity on offense when we’re struggling from beyond the arc.”

It’s a similar formula to how Auburn finished off a win over Arkansas Wednesday night. The Tigers shot 4-for-24 from 3-point range in that game, but grabbed 13 offensive rebounds compared to Arkansas’ four.

Auburn’s offensive rebound percentage now ranks 29th out of 364 Division I teams, helping maintain the Tigers’ cushion as KenPom’s No. 1 offense.

When asked about the offensive rebounding after Saturday’s game, Pearl explained not only what it means for the offense, but schematically how that strength is worked into the offensive gameplan.

“In the framework of our offense, we have backside rebounding built in,” Pearl said. “When you got Chaney, Dylan on the backside rebounding, and you got Johni with the ball in the post, you put three shooters out there, a kindergartner can figure out how to score with that.”

On a day where Auburn shot 6-for-22 from 3, that strategy was enough to win by 12 against a team ranked in the KenPom top 50. In a game where Auburn knocks down three or four more triples — something the group is more than capable of — that margin can swell.

Long range shooting won’t always be consistent. Some teams will run you off the 3-point line and on some nights the open shots just won’t fall.

However, there’s a lot less variance in rebounding when you’re committed to crashing the glass. And for an offense that can hurt you in a variety of ways, that effort will travel in March.

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