The record-breaking Neville Arena crowd cheered loudly as Auburn won the opening tip. It didn’t take long for Chaney Johnson — Auburn’s 6-foot-7 forward who was filling in for the injured Johni Broome — to get the ball on his way to the rim.

Johnson was aggressive, attacking the basket and following his shot for an easy layup after missing his first attempt.

The basket was a tone setter. A message that Johnson was willing and capable of giving the Mississippi State defense trouble just like his injured, All-American teammate.

Johnson went on to score 18 points, grab eight rebounds and more than fill the void left by Broome in Auburn’s 88-66 win over Mississippi State Tuesday night.

“Chaney Johnson is my hardest worker,” Bruce Pearl said after the game. “Nobody on this team would argue it. Whether it’s developing his body, working on his jump shot, just doing all the different things like that, and so he handled the minutes, he didn’t get in foul trouble and gives us a chance moving forward.”

Tuesday was Johnson’s third career start at Auburn and second at Neville Arena. When his name was announced over the PA before the game, he got the loudest ovation on the team, something both Pearl and Johnson noted when speaking to reporters postgame.

“It was an amazing feeling, man,” Johnson said, “I’m just grateful.”

Not only did Johnson fill up the scoresheet, but he did it efficiently. He made seven of his 10 shots from the field and had just one turnover in 34 minutes.

Johnson’s scoring went a long way toward replacing the production Auburn normally gets from Broome, but his defense was arguably even more impressive.

He finished the game with four blocks, helping hold Mississippi State’s starting frontcourt to 3-for-15 shooting. He also stayed out of foul trouble for most of the game, something he admitted before the game that he needed to work on.

Johnson’s interior defense is another benefit of the body transformation he underwent during the offseason. He’s become one of Auburn’s most physical players, and that helped him against a Mississippi State team that feeds off physicality and offensive rebounds.

“We look at film of Chaney Johnson last year. His hair is a little different, but the young man is 25 pounds heavier right now,” Pearl said. “He is a monster.”

That newfound physicality has been on display all season, but becomes even more noticeable and important with Broome out of the lineup.

Johnson’s explosion lays out the formula of how Auburn can continue its run of dominance without Broome. While he doesn’t give the Tigers everything that Broome does, he can impact the game in ways on both ends that keeps Auburn as dangerous as it was before.

It’s still unclear how long Auburn will be without its star center, but Johnson’s output Thursday night makes that stretch much less daunting.

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