AUBURN, Ala. – In his Neville Arena finale, All-American Johni Broome scored a career-high 34 points, but Mark Sears beat the buzzer with a jumper from the free-throw line to give No. 7 Alabama a 93-91 win Saturday on Senior Day at Neville Arena.
“Those are two teams capable of getting to the Final Four,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “Both teams stepped up in a lot of ways and played great basketball. Johni demonstrated to the country why he should be the national player of the year. It was great to see him step up. I don’t think we defended well enough; we didn’t rebound well enough.”
Broome hit a pair of 3-pointers in overtime; the first gave Auburn a one-point lead and the second tied the score with 15 seconds to play,
“That’s living for the moment,” Broome said. “I wanted the shot because my team needed me. Hitting shots while you’re tired, that’s what everybody tries to do because that’s when they’re needed the most.”
Sears received a pass with four seconds left, dribbled four times while driving to his left and hit a floater as time expired.
“We should have had a switch on that last possession,” Pearl said. “We did not execute it and as a result he got downhill left where he’s going to score.”
Broome showed why he is a leading national player of the year candidate, adding eight rebounds, five blocked shots, three steals and three assists in 43 minutes.
“A tough way to go out, especially in Neville,” Broome said. “I would like for it to be different.”
Tahaad Pettiford scored 19 points, grabbed four rebounds and had six assists. Miles Kelly scored 13 points, and Dylan Cardwell added six points, eight rebounds and four assists.
Trailing by three points at the half, Kelly hit three 3-pointers in the first five minutes of the second half, giving Auburn the lead each time.
Broome passed to Kelly for a layup that gave Auburn its largest lead at 55-50 before Alabama answered with a 6-0 run to retake the lead.
The visitors pushed their lead to 65-57 after a 9-0 run but Auburn jolted the Jungle with dunks from Broome and Cardwell within 15 seconds, leading to an Alabama timeout with the Tigers trailing 65-62 with 9:05 to play.
Denver Jones’ second-chance 3-pointer tied the score at 69-69 with 5:54 remaining, then Jones gave the Tigers a one-point lead with a pair of free throws after Broome’s steal.
Jones made a left-handed layup to give Auburn a three-point lead before Labaron Philon tied the score with a 3-pointer.
Pettiford drove and dished to Cardwell for a dunk that put the Tiger up by two, but Grant Nelson’s 3-pointer gave Alabama a 77-76 lead.
After Pettiford tied the score with a free throw, Nelson scored in the paint to give Alabama a two-point lead before Broome answered with a layup for a 79-79 tie with 59 seconds to play.
Auburn rebounded an Alabama miss, and Broome had a chance to win it for the Tigers but his baseline fadeaway bounced off the rim with 3 seconds left, sending the game to overtime.
“I wanted to take the last shot,” Broome said. “It’s a shot I take all the time. If I could take it back, I’d probably take it to the basket.”
Broome and Pettiford combined for 30 of Auburn’s 42 first half points, with the freshman making 4 of 5 3-point attempts. Broome led the Tigers with 16 points and five rebounds in the half.
“Going off what we do in practice,” Pettiford said. “We knew how the defense was going to play us, so reading it, coming off screens and finding my shot.”
Chad Baker-Mazara opened the scoring with a floater but that ended up being the Tigers’ only lead of the half.
Nelson scored 15 of his team-high 23 points in the first half and the visitors led by as many as eight before Broome pulled the Tigers within three with a spin move in the paint with a minute remaining.
Jones, with late help from Cardwell, locked up Sears at the end of half, forcing a shot clock violation with Alabama (24-7, 13-5) leading 45-42 with .3 seconds remaining, drawing a huge ovation from the home crowd.
The top seed in the Southeastern Conference Tournament after winning the regular season championship, No. 1 Auburn (27-4, 15-3) plays in the quarterfinals Friday at noon CT against a yet-to-be determined opponent at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
“Winning championships are things you’re going to celebrate your whole life,” Pearl said. “That’s never going to get taken away from you. We’re in postseason now, and postseason is all about step-up.”
“Now it’s tournament time,” Broome said. “Now it’s win or go home. We’re going to Nashville to win a tournament championship.”
Jeff Shearer is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on X: @jeff_shearer