Johni Broome leads No. 1 Auburn to huge win at No. 2 Alabama

Johni Broome bundled 19 points with 14 rebounds and six assists as Auburn outdueled rival Alabama 94-85 on Saturday in Tuscaloosa, Ala., in the first-ever Southeastern Conference matchup between the AP's top two teams.

Denver Jones added 16 points for the top-ranked Tigers (23-2, 11-1 SEC), who withstood a second-half rally by the No. 2 Crimson Tide (21-4, 10-2) to seize sole possession of first place in the conference.

Miles Kelly tallied 15 points and eight rebounds and Chad Baker-Mazara also scored 15 before fouling out for Auburn. Chaney Johnson chipped in 14 points and Tahaad Pettiford had 13.

Mark Sears netted 18 points and Grant Nelson paired 12 points with 12 boards to lead Alabama. Labaron Philon and former Auburn guard Aden Holloway each contributed 10 points as the Crimson Tide had their seven-game winning streak end.

The Tigers controlled the first half and opened up a 59-45 lead with 13:43 remaining before Alabama stormed back.

Sears' 3-pointer punctuated a 10-point surge that closed the deficit to three, and the Crimson Tide soon pulled even at 65 on Nelson's two-handed slam with 7:49 left. The home crowd erupted again when Chris Youngblood's trey leveled the game at 68.

Auburn steadied itself from there, using Baker-Mazara's triple to trigger a flurry that boosted the lead back to seven with 5:35 to go.

Despite appearing to re-aggravate a left ankle injury during the second half, Broome came up big for the Tigers down the stretch. He made a key block on Sears to keep Auburn ahead by six and later backed down Mouhamed Dioubate to put the Tigers up by 10 with 1:09 to play.

Auburn outshot Alabama 46.2 percent to 38.6 percent overall and finished 12-of-30 (40 percent) from 3-point range. The Crimson Tide went just 5-of-26 (19.2 percent) from distance, including 2-for-15 in the first half.

The Tigers did twice as much damage from distance over the game's first four minutes, canning four treys to open up a double-digit lead. Broome hit two 3s to cap Auburn's game-opening 9-0 run before Johnson connected to make it 14-4 just 3:07 in.

Alabama broke through midway through the half, getting their only 3-pointers from Holloway and Jarin Stevenson to finish an eight-point flurry that cut the Tigers' lead to 26-25 at the 7:49 mark.

Auburn regained separation by scoring the final seven points of the half to enter the break leading 42-33.

--Field Level Media