Observations: Auburn 82, Creighton 70
Instead of fading into another early NCAA Tournament exit, Auburn absorbed all the criticism and channeled it into a big-time win.
LEXINGTON, Ky. — Before the second half began Saturday night, Chad Baker-Mazara looked over at Denver Jones.
Auburn was trailing Creighton on the scoreboard. If that held up 20 minutes later, the Tigers were going to fail to advance to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament for the fourth straight time. Their opponents, on the other hand, had shot the cover off the ball in the first half and were headed toward their fourth regional in five years.
But Baker-Mazara locked eyes with Jones and made a promise.
“We’re going to the Sweet 16,” Baker-Mazara told Jones. “Mark my words.”
Auburn then opened the second half against Creighton by getting a defensive stop, then a 3-pointer from Jones. Then Baker-Mazara scored seven straight points, punctuating an and-1 drive to send the Tigers to the first media timeout by slamming his head into the padded stanchion.
Baker-Mazara had been called out by his coaches and his teammates, but he wasn’t going to let this be his last game with them.
“I kept emphasizing to them before the game: ‘I'm not ready to stop hooping with y'all,’” Baker-Mazara said. “It's so special. Even though things get heated, I love being in that locker room with them.”
Two possessions later, after Tahaad Pettiford drilled another 3-pointer for Auburn, Baker-Mazara drove to the basket and got kneed in the hip on a foul. He would hit two free throws before falling to the floor again. He couldn’t continue.
But his teammates were there to help him up, literally and figuratively. When Baker-Mazara checked out of the game, the Tigers were up by a single possession. When he returned for a couple of short shifts late in the game, they were up by three of them.
And Auburn ultimately won by four of them, beating Creighton by a score of 82-70.
Jones and Pettiford had picked up the scoring slack in the backcourt, carving up Creighton’s drop coverage for drives to the basket and big-time jumpers from all over the floor. The Bluejays couldn’t stay in front of them, and the Tigers knew it.
Johni Broome, who had also been publicly called out for his play in an underwhelming first-round win over Alabama State, shook off a rough night shooting to record a dozen rebounds.
“I shot 4-13, but that's OK,” Broome said. “I came here to win. This season is about winning. I know my teammates got my back, and they know I have theirs. My shots weren't falling, so I just had to do whatever I can to impact winning. I let everybody else do the scoring.”
Broome’s fellow big man, Dylan Cardwell, had arguably the most impactful game of his long Auburn career. He was a +24 in a game decided by half of that.
“Dylan's going to guard real well,” said Chaney Johnson, who stayed hot with eight first-half points and added eight rebounds. “I mean, he caught a body, too. Dylan is gonna play Dylan, and that's what he did tonight. And he led us to victory.”
And Jahki Howard — the freshman who had practically fallen out of the rotation multiple times this season — immediately stepped in for Baker-Mazara and put together positive minutes on the defensive end of the floor.
“It's just the sacrifice that this whole team has made,” said Miles Kelly, whose red-hot shooting at Rupp Arena cooled off but +14 in plus/minus told the story of his defensive impact. “Any given day, it can be someone else's game, and everybody else is just happy for each other.
“I think that's just the biggest thing for this team: Everybody staying so happy for each other and the sacrifice people make for this team is the reason why we have so much success.”
This success was similar to what Auburn had enjoyed throughout its historic regular season, where it smashed through most of a brutal non-conference schedule and became the outright winners of the toughest version of the SEC we’ve ever seen.
In less than eight minutes in the second half, Auburn went on a 20-4 run — a pair of Kill Shots sandwiching back-to-back buckets from Creighton — to punch its ticket to nearby Atlanta for the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament.
Creighton never got within three possessions the rest of the way. Auburn had rediscovered its trademark offensive efficiency and shut down a Creighton shooting barrage that seemingly couldn’t miss in the first half.
It was vintage Auburn basketball, and it couldn’t have come at a more perfect time.
“People think that we were getting away from who we were,” said Pettiford, who had 23 points in only his second NCAA Tournament game. “And we kinda did. We all noticed it, so we tried to get back to ourselves and play like the Auburn that we were in the beginning of the year.”
The old Auburn is back, and it has a chance to make some more new memories.
“We haven't been past the first weekend since 2019, when we got to the Final Four,” Bruce Pearl said. “Being the No. 1 overall seed, it would have been disappointing if we didn't do it again. We got upset by Miami as a No. 2 seed a few years ago with Walker Kessler and Jabari Smith.
“But we played a team in Creighton tonight that is as good as the teams we will see in Atlanta. … We knew Creighton was going to be as good as anybody we would see on the road to the Final Four.”
Instead of lamenting another early NCAA Tournament exit, Auburn is still on that road.
Here are four Observations from Auburn’s 82-70 win over Creighton, along with the Rotation Charts, Nerd Stats and the Quote of the Night.
Auburn’s defense was built to weather that storm
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