Behind 14 points apiece from Johni Broome and Wendell Green Jr., No. 13 Auburn rolled to an 85-64 win over Bradley in the opening round of the Cancun Challenge on Tuesday in Cancun, Mexico.
Broome got off to a hot start in the first half despite picking up two early fouls. He led Auburn with nine rebounds. Green added a team-high six assists.
Jaylin Williams led the Tigers with 10 first-half points and finished with 11. He also added four rebounds and three assists. K.D. Johnson and Allen Flanigan had 13 and 12 points, respectively, off the bench.
Auburn (5-0) shot 56.4 percent from the field (31 of 55) and 47.1 percent from the 3-point arc (8 of 17) for the game. The Tigers also had 18 assists.
Bradley played without its best player and top scorer, Ja’Shon Henry, who was out with a concussion.
Connor Hickman picked up the slack with Henry out and kept Bradley (3-2) in the game in the first half by scoring 13 points on 3-of-4 shooting from 3-point range. He finished with 15 points and three assists.
Duke Deen tallied 15 points and four assists for the Braves. Malevy Leons added 11 points and three rebounds.
Auburn jumped out to an early 12-2 lead after it nailed its first four shots. The Tigers went up 18-7 after a nifty pass from Flanigan led to an alley-oop jam by Dylan Cardwell.
The Tigers grabbed a 36-24 lead with less than eight minutes to play in the opening half when Cardwell received a pass from Green and slammed home another alley-oop dunk.
With 3:58 to go in the opening half, Auburn maintained a 39-26 lead. The Braves cut the lead to eight with less than three minutes to play on a fastbreak jumper and a 3-pointer by Leons, but Green responded with a 3 to push the Tigers lead back to 11, 42-31.
A nifty shot by Green at the buzzer put Auburn up 45-32 at the break.
The Tigers maintained a double-digit lead for most of the second half. A powerful dunk by Flanigan on an assist from Chance Westry gave Bruce Pearl’s team a 65-48 lead with less than 13 minutes to play.
–Field Level Media
