Hobbling up and down the court still nursing his ankle injury, Auburn leading scorer Johni Broome proved to the world how tough he actually is.

From draining 3-point baskets to turnaround fadeaways, Alabama had no answer for the Tigers leading scorer as Broome finished with 19 points and 14 rebounds.

“I just came in being aggressive. I came in trying to be aggressive, and I was kind of feeling it a little bit. I just made some plays,” Johni Broome said postgame.

Alabama had Clifford Omoruyi guarding Broome to start the game. However, that matchup quickly changed to Mouhamed Dioubate after Broome scored six of the Tigers first 10 points.

When breaking down the scouting report for Alabama, Auburn coach Bruce Pearl knew Alabama wouldn’t send help defense when guarding Broome.

“We didn’t do anything too terribly fancy. We just gave him the ball, and they don’t double,” Pearl said. “They thought they could play him one-on-one, and they did a pretty good job on him. He missed nine shots; he made seven or eight. He had his double-double, and it was enough to get it done.”

Pearl added on the grit Broome displayed playing injured and stepping up when Dylan Cardwell fouled out in the second half.

“He sucked it up, he really did. He was tired early in the second half. You could tell he was dragging a little bit. I was worried we were going to run out of gas, especially with Dylan in foul trouble,” Pearl said. “But again, found a way, sucked it up, made history. Big win in here. But look, however many we’ve got left in the regular season, it’s just too early to talk about anything other than Arkansas on Wednesday.”

Since injuring his ankle in the South Carolina game, Broome has scored 15 or more points in six straight games. In the Tigers last three games against Alabama he’s averaging 23 points, 12 rebounds and four blocks.

Broome is now up to 75 career double-doubles and it’s the second most among active Division I players. Playing in a league with 13 projected teams to make the NCAA tournament, it would be hard not give him the honor.

Jerry Humphrey III covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Jerryhump3 or email him at [email protected].