BY NOAH GRIFFITH | FOR THE OBSERVER
AUBURN — The start of SEC play didn’t slow down Auburn University men’s basketball one bit.
No. 16 Auburn (13-2, 2-0) knocked down two giants in its first two SEC games to extend its win streak to eight games. Six of those wins have come by 20 points or more, and each of them have come by double digits.
The Tigers notched a historic win at Arkansas and ended its three-game losing streak against Buzz Williams’ Texas A&M Aggies, as Auburn celebrated Bruce Pearl’s 10-year anniversary as head coach at Auburn.
“This has been one of the hardest working teams that I’ve had,” Pearl said. “We’ve put ourselves in position. We’ve got work to do.”
Here are some highlights from each game.
SATURDAY, JAN. 6:
AUBURN 83 – ARKANSAS 53
Arkansas fans stormed the court after beating No. 1 Auburn the last time the Tigers visited Fayetteville. This time, Auburn came out on top, and the 32-point win was the biggest deficit the Hogs had ever lost by inside Bud Walton Arena, which dates back to 1993.
“That history does matter,” Pearl said. “Doing it at a place like this, or if you could do it at (Kentucky) or if you could do it at Tennessee, it does mean more because those are some of the toughest places in the SEC to play.”
Both offenses got off to a slow start before Chad Baker-Mazara scored seven points in the final four minutes of the first half to give Auburn a 37-30 lead going to halftime.
The Tigers took over from there. Auburn outscored Arkansas, 46-21, in the second half as Auburn rode Baker-Mazara’s second straight 16-point effort off the bench to the win. Johni Broome (14), Jaylin Williams (11) and Tre Donaldson (11) all joined Baker-Mazara in double figures in scoring as it shot 48.6% as a team while holding Arkansas to 31%.
With a dominant win over Arkansas (9-5), Auburn continued to build an impressive resume that only consist of two losses by a combined six points.
TUESDAY, JAN. 9:
AUBURN 66 – TEXAS A&M 55
It was Auburn’s hardest-fought win this season, but Williams’ late 3-pointer led Auburn to its first win over Texas A&M (9-6) in two years.
After four lead changes, Auburn took the lead for the final time with just under nine minutes to go. It remained a one-score affair until Williams dropped the dagger with 52 seconds remaining in the game.
“That’s one of the biggest shots of my career, for sure,” Williams said. “I practice that shot all the time. I had confidence in that one. Texas A&M beat me up pretty well the past few years.”
That shot was the only bucket either team scored in the last eight minutes of the game, and it gave Williams his fourth 20-point scoring performance of the season as he led the team with 22 points and eight rebounds in the game.
K.D. Johnson and company forced 19 turnovers from the Aggies, and the defense held Texas A&M to 29% shooting from the floor. Despite the Aggies’ commanding advantage in rebounding, particularly on the offensive side (19-8), Auburn gave few open looks to the Aggies. With 19 assists, Auburn worked to create open looks against a stingy Texas A&M defense.
In a 39.2% shooting effort, Auburn found a way to limit Texas A&M’s stars without its strongest offensive showing. After Aden Holloway splashed a pair of 3-pointers to open the game, Auburn finished just 5-for-22. Broome, Auburn’s top scorer, went scoreless in the first half and finished with just 10 points.
Nonetheless, Auburn limited Wade Taylor IV, the Aggies’ leading scorer, to eight points as Auburn held on to keep its win streak alive and stay unbeaten in conference play. The Tigers remain hot as they prepare to host LSU (10-5) on Saturday at 5 p.m. CST.