No. 4 Auburn dominated Memphis to win the championship game of the Maui Invitational on Wednesday, taking a 47–31 halftime lead and going on to a 90–76 victory.
Johni Broome posted a double-double in the first half with 15 points and 11 rebounds. He finished with 21 points, 16 rebounds and six assists.
Memphis took an impressive path to the Maui finai, upsetting No. 2 UConn and defeating Michigan State, but eventually ran into an Auburn buzzsaw. The Tigers from the SEC ran out to a 9–0 lead before Memphis closed the gap to four points.
With a 15–11 lead, Auburn then went on a 10–2 run finished off by a 3-pointer from Chaney Johnson. Bruce Pearl’s team didn’t let up from there, eventually taking a 39–19 lead punctuated by 3s from Broome and JP Pegues, followed by a Dylan Cardwell dunk.
Auburn devoured Memphis on the offensive boards, grabbing 11 rebounds that led to 16 second-chance points.
Penny Hardaway’s Tigers simply faced too deep a hole to climb out from, never getting closer than 15 points in the second half. By the time five minutes had been played, Memphis appeared to be out of gas against an Auburn squad that was getting scoring from seemingly every position on the court.
