No. 1 Auburn wins at Vandy, now 6-0 in SEC road games

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Denver Jones got No. 1 Auburn off to a hot start, then Chaney Johnson and Johni Broome took over in the second half to give the top-ranked Tigers an 80-68 road win over Vanderbilt Tuesday at Memorial Gymnasium, which sounded at times like Neville Arena.

“Our fans are traveling. They’ve embraced this program, they certainly love this team,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “When the guys play like that, play so well together, it’s really gratifying. That was a really good win against a really good basketball team.”

Jones led Auburn with 21 points, making 5 of 7 3-pointers.

“(Associate head coach Steven Pearl) said come out aggressive and always look to score, and the game will come a little bit easier,” Jones said. “That was the mindset I had to today. That’s the confidence the coaches instilled in me.”

Johnson scored 20 points and grabbed five rebounds, and Broome added 17 points and a team-high seven rebounds to help Auburn improve to 6-0 in SEC road games.  

Broome and Johnson combined for 31 of Auburn’s 46 second-half points, with Johnson making 7 of 7 shots in the half.

Leading 34-32 at the half, Chris Moore, making his first start of the season, made the first basket of each half.

Jones hit his fifth 3-pointer to put the Tigers ahead by four points, but the Commodores capitalized on offensive rebounds and an Auburn turnover, taking their first lead on Jason Edwards’ 3-pointer.

“Our identity has got to be on the defensive end, because that’s the one thing we can control,” Pearl said. “If we’re going to continue to win, our defense is going to have to carry us and lead the way.”

Johnson took control from there, scoring nine consecutive points, reclaiming the lead with a 3-pointer, then adding three more baskets in fewer than two minutes to turn a one-point deficit into an eight-point Auburn lead.

“Chaney had the advantage on the inside, and he took advantage of it,” Pearl said. “He did a lot of things that were dominant. Nobody is in the gym more than Chaney Johnson, perfecting those moves.”

Tahaad Pettiford’s 4-point play gave Auburn a 10-point lead with 9:19 to play, and the Tigers led by double digits over the final 6:43.

Broome duplicated Johnson’s feat, scoring nine straight Auburn points in 3 minutes and 10 seconds down the stretch, securing Auburn’s eighth win in the series in the past nine games.

Auburn did not shoot its first free throw until the 18:20 mark of the second half. The Tigers attempted 15 free throws in the second half, making 11.

The Tigers scored the game’s first 15 points, getting a pair of 3-pointers from Jones and one from Miles Kelly before the first media timeout.

“This game had all of our focus,” Pearl said. “We got off to a great start. We stopped guarding a little bit in the first half and that was an issue.”

Jones scored 14 in the half, hitting 4 of 6 3-pointers.

“We were really good early,” Pearl said. “Denver Jones had an unbelievable first half. He was way more aggressive offensively, which was really good. Denver was brilliant in the first half, carrying us.”

The Commodores survived the first-round knockdown, whittling away at Auburn’s lead and pulling within two at the half by making their first 3-pointer after eight misses with 6 seconds left in the half.

No. 1 Auburn (22-2, 10-1) makes history Saturday at 3 p.m. CT against No. 2 Alabama in Tuscaloosa, the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in Southeastern Conference history.

Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer

Postgame Notes

• With the road win, Auburn has now won three straight and eight of the last nine against Vanderbilt. The Tigers have won the last two meetings and four of the last five at Memorial Gymnasium. Vanderbilt leads the series 90-59 overall.
• Bruce Pearl is 16-9 against Vanderbilt in his head coaching career including 8-5 coaching Auburn. He is 8-8 at Vanderbilt including a 4-4 mark while leading Auburn. 
• Coach Pearl is 3-0 against first-year Vanderbilt head coach Mark Byington. All three victories have come during Pearl’s time at Auburn, and the first two victories came while Byington was coaching Georgia Southern.
• Ranked Auburn teams have now won six-straight road games against unranked teams including four this season.
• Auburn improved to 22-2 on the season, which is tied with the 2021-22 Tigers for the second-best 24-game start in program history, just one game behind Auburn’s 23-1 start to the 1998-99 season. The Tigers’ 22 wins are tied for ninth-most in school history. Of Auburn’s 12 seasons with at least 22 wins, six have come in the last eight seasons.
• AU improves to 10-1 in the SEC including 6-0 on the road this season. With their 10th SEC win, the Tigers have reached double-digit wins in the conference for the 24th time in school history and the seventh time in the last eight seasons.
• Auburn used the starting lineup of Denver Jones, Miles Kelly, Chris Moore, Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell. It was Moore’s first start of the season and the 43rd start of his career. Jones and Cardwell have started all 24 games this season. 
• AU opened the game on a 15-0 run, which is the Tigers’ largest run to open a game this season, topping 10-0 runs against Kent State and Mississippi State.
• Auburn reached the 80-point mark for the fifth-straight game and the 18th time this season.
• The Tigers shot 51.7 percent overall (30-of-58), 37.5 percent from beyond the arc (9-of-24) and 73.3 percent from the foul line (11-of-15). They are 10-0 when they shoot 50 percent this season. All 15 of Auburn’s free throw attempts came in the second half.
• Auburn only committed eight turnovers. It was the 14th time the Tigers have committed single-digit turnovers this season including the last three games and four of the last five.
• The Tigers scored half of their points (40) in the paint. It was the ninth time they have scored at least 40 paint points this season including three times in SEC play.
• Auburn placed three players in double figures led by Denver Jones with 21 points on 7-of-10 field goals, 5-of-7 3-pointers and 2-of-2 free throws. He scored 14 points on 5-of-8 field goals and 4-of-6 from long range in the first half alone. It was Jones’ first 20-point game of the season and the 21st of his collegiate career. His five 3-point field goals matched his season high from the Georgia State game.
• Chaney Johnson scored an SEC career-high 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting overall, including one 3-pointer, and went 1-of-2 from the foul line. Johnson added five rebounds and two steals in the road win. He scored 16 points on 7-of-7 shooting in the second half to go with three rebounds and both of his steals. Johnson has scored in double figures in three-straight games after scoring 13 in each of the last two games against Oklahoma and No. 6 Florida.
• It was the third time Auburn has had two 20-point games in the same game this season after Broome and Tahaad Pettiford did so against Houston and at Duke.
• Johni Broome added 17 points to go with seven rebounds, three blocks and two assists at Vanderbilt. He has now scored in double figures in 46 of the last 48 games. Broome has averaged 18.7 points, 10.8 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.8 blocks in six games since missing two contests due to injury.