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LEXINGTON, Ky. — The top seed in the NCAA Tournament received a wake-up call Thursday in its first-round game.

Now, No. 1 Auburn strives to show up from the start when they play No. 9 Creighton in a second-round South Region game Saturday night at Rupp Arena.

Auburn (29-5) led No. 16 seed Alabama State 32-31 with 1:48 left in the first half before a 9-0 run gave them a 41-31 halftime lead. Auburn then went on a 17-7 run to open the second half and undo any upset possibilities.

Creighton (25-10) beat No. 8 Louisville to advance to Saturday night’s showdown with the Tigers. The Bluejays went on a 19-2 run late in the first half to put Louisville down 20 and cruised to the victory.

The winner moves on to the Sweet 16 and a spot in the South Region semifinal next Friday in Atlanta.

Creighton’s Jamiya Neal was torrid from the field in the first round. He made 11 of 16 shots to go with 12 rebounds, while center Ryan Kalkbrenner had 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting.

“We won’t beat Creighton playing the way we played (against Alabama State),” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “We can play better. We know we can tighten things up. But that’s the thing about the tournament, we will absolutely get (the chance) the next game.

“One of the things that we’ll do, even in a short period of time, we’re going to look at (Thursday). We’re going to look at it a little bit and go, ‘OK, this is how we’re going to (do things) on Saturday against a much better, much bigger, much different kind of a basketball team. Hopefully we can learn.”

Auburn’s Johni Broome finished Thursday’s game with 14 points and 11 rebounds. It marked his 19th double-double in three seasons at Auburn, breaking Mike Mitchell’s record of 18 that stood since 1978.

“It means a lot to solidify my name in Auburn history and kind of give back to the university,” Broome said.

Broome (6-foot-10, 240 pounds) faces off against Kalkbrenner (7-1, 270), who just won Big East Defensive Player of the Year for the fourth time, in a critical matchup between bigs that will be the key to the outcome.

Auburn was successful using downhill drives to the basket to create space on the floor, but the Bluejays used their defense to bring the action to Kalkbrenner on Thursday.

“You have a four-time Defensive Player of the Year at the basket waiting for them,” McDermott said. “So really trying to funnel all of those lane line drives or base line drives off the 3-point line and into Kalkbrenner, and he did a phenomenal job, as he always does, protecting the basket for us and making it difficult for them.”

The Bluejays are trying to advance to the Sweet 16 for the third straight year and the fourth time in five seasons under head coach Greg McDermott.

One factor the Bluejays won’t have to battle as much Saturday is the crowd. Rupp Arena was filled with a sea of red-clad Louisville fans who made the 70-mile trek east Thursday. Creighton silenced them early.

“Obviously it seems like it’s been our third road game in neutral sites this postseason, playing in Madison Square Garden out on the East Coast against UConn and St. Johns, and here in Lexington against Louisville,” Creighton starting point guard Steven Ashworth said.

Ashworth finished with 22 points, five rebounds and five assists in the first-round win over Louisville.

“We knew that there was some things in those other games that we could learn from, and personally, I felt like it was my job as the point guard to make sure that when they were going on runs, when the crowd tried to get into it, I tried to settle things down,” Ashworth said.

–By Mike Petraglia, Field Level Media