Atlanta – A heavy crowd of Auburn, noisy and noisy the whole game inside the State Farm Arena, suddenly silent.
Johni Broome, Auburn star and player of the dry year, was grimacing on the ground, holding his right arm. It looked bad, in the short term against the state of Michigan and, if they survive the night, in the long term for the hopes of the championship of series n ° 1.
The tension felt like not to be released, cut only by a young boy close to the howls of the courtyard, with a deep accent of the south, “I hope you are oh-kay, Johni.” While Broome left the field in the locker room, he blocked “I’m Ednu” to his teammates.
Auburn had dominated the match from the start, led by the 20 Broome points and 12 rebounds in the first 30 minutes of the match, but it seemed potentially perilous without a broomer against the Spartans of Tom Izzo who were never going to abandon. The tigers held a 10-point lead with less than 11 minutes in the match, but could it take care of a Jase Richardson and Co. in charge?
Izzo undoubtedly begged that it would not, but there was no panic of Auburn. The tigers had been in this position before. No, it was not with an oven final on the line, but Broome went down in the second half against Southern Carolina on January 11 with an ankle sprain and the tigers have always rallied to beat the Gamecocks. Auburn has won her next two games, both against the classified opponents of the SEC, giving the team the confidence that she could reserve a ticket for San Antonio even without her great star man.
“Our guys were more worried if he was fine and less, so we will be able to win without him,” said Auburn’s associate coach Steven Pearl. “We knew we could beat Michigan State without him.”
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The goalkeeper of Auburn Chad Baker-Mazara: “It built a little fire when we saw our guy falling.
More than five minutes of play later, there was Broome, making his best impression of Willis Reed, who came out on the team of the team. The Tigers held the service in its absence – the two teams scored seven points in the five minutes he was absent – and maintained the 10 -point advance.
Broome went to the youngest pearl and said to him, “I can play if you need me.”
Before Pearl could even treat what Broome said, the Dylan Cardwell center asked for a substitution and Broome was in Halfcourt ready to return.
The crowd became stronger and stronger when it recognized what was going on. During his second game on the field, Broome caught an arm rebound, run on the ground and then hit a three-point pointer to give Auburn a 60-48 lead with 4:40 to play in the game, sending the crowd to a frenzy. Any real chance of the state of Michigan had successfully returned when the Broome shot fell through the net.
“We knew that he was going to come with assault because I know Johni,” Baker-Mazara told CBS Sports. “He never likes to go down. I saw him in his face. He told me that I got you, don’t worry.”
Auburn selected Michigan State, winning 70-64, to give the program its second appearance in the Final Four, both made under head coach Bruce Pearl. The seeded n ° 1 of the tournament will obtain a revenge match against Florida, a team she lost, 90-81, February 8.
Broome paved the way with a summit of 25 points and 14 rebounds while the first year goalkeeper Tahaad Pettiford was the only other tiger in two digits with 10 points. The Michigan State wanted to remove the three -point shot from Auburn and accomplished this – the Tigers obtained 7 out of 25 for 28% – but had no response for Broome. When everything was finished, Izzo was amazed at the way Broome has moved effortlessly on the ground, calling him “the real affair”.
“This is why he is an All-American,” said Izzo. “This is why he is a player candidate of the year. I did a job from Helluva.”
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The question of whether Sunday’s injury will have an impact on Broome in the future will be a big question for the Tigers before the semi-final on Saturday against the Gators (6:09 p.m. on CBS). During any game breakup, Broome could be seen holding his right arm and grimacing, clearly always bad. In the locker room after the match, he had a bag of ice on his elbow, then spent a few minutes wrapping his arm by a trainer.
Broome was mainly a mother on details on how the injury has happened or what it could mean going ahead. Even before the injury that everyone saw on the ground, Broome had a coach looking at his right arm after cutting off the game. An MRI in the game determined that there was no serious damage, according to Broome, but Pearl expected to know more about the specific diagnosis tomorrow.
“Whether it is a slight hyperextension or anything, the doctors were obviously able to determine that there was no damage,” said Pearl. “I bet it will be quite painful tomorrow, however.”
Whatever the diagnosis, this team is ready for San Antonio. He may have the most underestimated man in the country of Cardwell. He has guards like Pettiford, Baker-Mazara and Denver Jones-guys who can become hot at any time and do personal shopping 10-0. This team is athletic, talented and which again looks like it was when it was team n ° 1 in the country with a file of 27-2 in early March.
Auburn has overwhelmed the state of Michigan almost since the jump. The Spartans held an advance of 8-6 with 15:50 to do in the first half, the last time they would be ahead of the tigers. From there, Auburn carried out a sequence of 17-0 and before you know, the score was 23-8 and the Spartans seemed finished. It was like a home match of Auburn with the crowd of tigers having clearly an impact on the game, becoming absolutely wild after the Spartans missed three three consecutive points in a single possession. When Broome ran on the ground and hit a three -point pointer to give his team a 15 -point lead and celebrated with its movement “Call God”, it is difficult to imagine that the crowd could have become stronger.
“Whenever we hit a shot, we felt like we were hitting 10 shots because of the crowd,” said Baker-Mazara.
“The energy was crazy,” said Jones. “I turned around everyone standing, my ears ringing how strong it was. I love Auburn, I like fans.”
The Izzo group deserves the merit of never giving in and doing some mini-people to stay in the game, but that could never reduce the lead for less than five points after the Tigers race in the first half. There was a clear advantage Auburn that Auburn owned who could not be overcome, no matter how much Izzo tried to make a team he loved so much of an oven final.
Auburn was inevitable on Sunday evening, whether or not he had a healthy broom. A year after being rebounded in the first round by the seeded n ° 13 Yale, the tigers were intended for San Antonio and could not be happier. A Bruce Pearl crying hugged a Hugh Freeze just as emotional a few moments after all, amazing what the moment meant for school.
Fans of Auburn in the arena have summed up the moment with their famous song, “it’s great to be an Auburn Tiger”, with more magical moments always possible for a team that resisted a spell at the end of March and which looks as well as ever, especially if Broome is healthy, to be the first to bring a national championship to the plains.
