Bruce Pearl, Auburn Beat Alabama State After Slow Start, Underwhelm March Madness Fans

Auburn got off to a slow start at the NCAA men's basketball tournament on Thursday. But Alabama State felt the wrath of the Tigers soon enough.

With just 1:48 remaining in the first half, 1-seed Auburn held just a 32-31 lead over the 16-seeded Hornets in South Regional action. But the Tigers went on a 9-0 run to close out the first half and outscored Alabama State 42-32 in the second half, extinguishing any hopes of a massive upset en route to an 83-63 win.

"We gotta sharpen some things up," head coach Bruce Pearl said on the CBS broadcast after the win. "We didn't play great. Good thing is we saw zone, we saw man, we saw a bunch of different things from Alabama State. They made us think a little bit. We've got to play a lot better to beat Creighton on Sunday"

Miles Kelly paced the Tigers with 23 points, while Johni Broome added a 14-point, 11-rebound double-double.

Amarr Knox led the Hornets with 18 points.

There will be concerns that Auburn got off to a slow start against a team it was expected to throttle, and fair enough. But the Tigers handled business, leading to a mixed response on social media after the game:

The Tigers had a fantastic regular season but came into March Madness with a few question marks after losing three of their last four games. None were bad losses—Texas A&M, Alabama and Tennessee are all tournament teams—but Auburn appeared to be the shakiest 1-seed in a loaded bunch that also included Duke, Florida and Houston.

So a slow start against a 16-seed didn't exactly inspire confidence.

But the Tigers pulled it together and now face 9-seed Creighton, which beat up Louisville, 89-75, earlier on Thursday. The teams will face each other in the second round on Saturday.