Broome leads No. 25 Auburn to 88-68 win over Penn with 24 points, 12 boards
AUBURN, Ala. (AP) — Auburn big man Johni Broome had been doing just about everything but hitting 3-point shots.
He flashed that part of his game on Tuesday night, too.
Broome had 24 points and 12 rebounds and snapped a 10-game stretch without a 3 in leading No. 25 Auburn to an 88-68 victory over Penn. The 6-foot-10 junior went 3 of 4 from beyond the arc after missing 16 straight long-range attempts during his drought.
“Man, it felt good to see the first one go in,” Broome said. “A lot of credit goes to my teammates and my coaches. They still believe in me to set those shots up for me.
“Dang, it's been rough.”
The Tigers (11-2) built a 51-32 halftime lead and won their sixth straight game, one day after entering the Top 25 for the first time this season. It was their final game before opening Southeastern Conference play.
“Obviously, Johni Broome dominated in there,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. "We obviously took care of business and now we get into conference play.”
Chad Baker-Mazara had a season-high 16 points and K.D. Johnson scored 13, both off the bench. Denver Jones finished with 12 points.
Broome, who was 4 of 22 from 3-point range coming into the game, made a pair in the first three minutes. He shot 9 of 10 from the field overall.
“It's just been one of those things where he hasn't gotten that many great looks,” Pearl said. “He got better, clean looks tonight. He took them in rhythm.”
Two Penn freshmen helped pick up the slack with leading scorer Clark Slajchert out due to an ankle injury sustained early against Houston.
Sam Brown went 4 of 6 on 3-pointers and led Penn (8-7) with 20 points. Tyler Perkins had 13 points and eight rebounds.
The Quakers cut a 19-point halftime deficit to 57-48 on a 3 by fellow freshman Niklas Polonowski six minutes into the second half. But the comeback was short-lived.
Baker-Mazara answered with a 3 to start a 13-1 run and the lead ballooned to 24.
“When you have a preseason one-bid (NCAA Tournament) league, these experiences are what you want,” Penn coach Steve Donahue said. "You want to get challenged. You want to play against good players and then you want to have some success. I thought we did that during that (second-half) stretch and hung around.
“I think they wore us down.”
BIG PICTURE
Penn: Fell to 1-3 against ranked opponents this season, with a 76-72 win over then-No. 21 Villanova on Nov. 13. The Quakers were coming off an 81-42 loss to No. 3 Houston. ... Andrew Laczkowski made his first start of the season and had seven points.
Auburn: Has its longest winning streak since starting last season 8-0. The Tigers have won 52 consecutive home games against nonconference opponents. ... Made 10 of 19 3s in the first half. ... Freshman point guard Aden Holloway had six assists, including four on the first five baskets.
SWITCHING SIDES
Auburn assistant Ira Bowman is a former Penn player and assistant coach. Bowman was the 1995-96 Ivy League Player of the Year.
UP NEXT
Penn opens Ivy League play Saturday against Dartmouth.
Auburn begins SEC play at Arkansas on Saturday.
___
Get poll alerts and updates on AP Top 25 basketball throughout the season. Sign up here.
___
AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball
