Simply put, Auburn took care of business against Richmond.

The Tigers used a 13-of-30 shooting performance from behind the arc to put away Richmond early en route to a 98-54 win over the Spiders from Neville Arena.

Auburn had six players record double-figures while holding the visiting Spiders to 27 percent shooting from the field.

"I thought that had a chance to be a trap game, coming off of Maui and then Duke," Bruce Pearl said postgame. "And I'm just very impressed with my guys for being excited about playing."

Auburn improved its record to 8-1 and will return to action on December 14 when it plays Ohio State in Atlanta

Here are some takeaways from Auburn's dominant win over Richmond

INSIDE-OUT BALL

In a similar defensive style to Iowa State, Richmond was not going to let Johni Broome beat it. Whenever the Tigers got the ball to Broome in the post, the Spiders brought their weak side corner defender over to double and dared the Tigers to beat them from deep.

Both teams got what they wanted: Broome only scored 11 points and Auburn got a bunch of open looks for Denver Jones and Miles Kelly.

Jones finished 3-of-8 from deep and Kelly was 4-of-5. As a team, Auburn shot 43 percent from behind the arc against a Richmond team that had been holding opponents to an average of 29 percent.

"It's super beneficial," Kelly said about playing alongside Broome. "We work on knocking down open shots in practice. Having an All-American big like that, he's going to command a lot of attention, so us guards, we've got to just knock down shots. And that's part of the reason why I came here to play with better players and get cleaner looks, so that's really good."

And although it wasn't a big scoring game for him, Broome added six assists, and he was happy to do so.

"Johni, (said) — 'Give me the ball so I can throw it to a teammate," Pearl said about Broome. "Just give me the ball so I can throw it to a teammate.' That was really pretty basketball."

As a team, Auburn had 23 assists on 33 made shots and turned the ball over just seven times.

DEFENSE BOUNCES BACK

Pearl has not been shy talking about it: Auburn's defense against Duke was bad.

Against a bad Richmond offense (No. 245 in adjusted offensive rating), the Tigers simply took care of business.

The Tigers held Richmond to 27 percent shooting from the field and 20 percent from deep while holding the Spiders to 0.750 points per possession.

Auburn also held the Spiders to an assist-to-turnover ratio of 8-to-15. This season, the Tigers have held six of their eight opponents to a negative assist-to-turnover ratio.

It was a good performance, but since Auburn itself runs 5-out, the Tigers were used to the offense making it a good matchup.

Pearl knows that won't be the case against Ohio State.

"Sometimes guys, it's about matchups," Pearl said postgame. "There are certain things that we defend really well, and that's one of the things we defend really well. Ohio State will bring a completely different offensive system in. We'll take our defensive system and match it up, but that's just a good matchup for us. We know how to guard it."

WELCOME BACK JAHKI

This wasn't Jahki Howard's first game action since the opener, but it was his first stretch of real, rotational minutes.

And he responded as well as he could have.

Howard put up 13 points, with two of those coming from his "first college body" to go along with four rebounds.

His teammates were just happy to see him back on the court.

"Knowing the situation he's been through," Pearl said. "Just him being a good teammate throughout the games he couldn't play, showing up to practice every day working as hard as he can just trying to get back in the rotation. It was good seeing come out there, do what he does best, and he was loving it, he was happy doing it, so that's the best thing about it."

UNSELFISH BALL CLUB

In 18 minutes Chad Baker-Mazara posted 13 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Very good game, but again, just 18 minutes. Why is that? Partially because of the score, but also, Baker-Mazara knew that the aforementioned Howard needed to get his feet under him.

His head coach took notice of that.

"Now, Chad Baker-Mazara plays 18 minutes almost by choice," Pearl said postgame. "Recognizing we have to get Jahki out there and that he needs the reps. Chad Baker, just incredibly unselfish."

TAHAAD JUST KEEPS ON KEEPING ON

It wasn't against a top-10 team, but Tahaad Pettiford still hooped.

The freshman posted 15 points to go along with three rebounds and assists.

Pettiford went 4-of-8 from deep and upped his percentage from beyond the arc to 42.6.

Pettiford is about as unfazed as a freshman can be, and when asked about that postgame, he gave the credit to the people around him.

"My teammates and coaches, they keep me down," Pettiford said. "If I mess up, they'll let me know the truth. They don't just sugarcoat things. My teammates, they always tell me to play my game and do what I do. Having teammates and coaches like that around me, it just makes me more comfortable to play this game."