Tigers lose Broome, calmly brush off Panthers (final score)

The Auburn Tigers may be in trouble. While Bruce Pearl’s squad enjoyed a calm, mostly stress-free victory over the Georgia State Panthers on Tuesday night, the real story started developing early in the first half, when star forward Johni Broome fell to the floor and immediately grabbed at his right shoulder.

The remaining 15+ minutes of a turnover-heavy, alley-oop filled first half felt somewhat meaningless with Auburn’s best player dressed in street clothes on the bench, bracing a football-sized pack of ice closely to his upper body. To Auburn’s credit, Tahaad Pettiford, Chaney Johnson, and Denver Jones were able to pick up the slack on the offensive end with their top scorer sidelined. The trio combined for 26 of the Tigers 43 points in the opening frame. 41 of those points were scored after Broome sprinted from the Neville Arena floor to the locker room.

Georgia State was able to hang around for much of the first half with Broome sidelined, mainly due to the sharpshooting of center Cesare Edwards (15 points). The former Xavier Musketeer and Missouri State Bear effort seemed good enough to help his team cover a 39.5-point pre-game spread, which was the highest an Auburn opponent had been handicapped this season, until a late 11-0 surge in the final two minutes by the Tigers helped them win the game by 41 points. The 41-point loss was actually not the worst margin of defeat suffered by an opponent in front of ‘The Jungle’ this season. That accolade, or stain, is held by Vermont, who suffered a 51-point defeat in the season opener.

On the Auburn side, the aforementioned Chaney Johnson was the star of the show filling in for his injured front-court mate. The junior finished with a season-high 26 points, while chipping in 8 rebounds and a season-high 4 assists as well. Chad Baker-Mazara also forced himself into a new role during Broome’s absence, hoisting up a season-high 11 field goal attempts on his way to a team second-best 19. Denver Jones also…