BIRMINGHAM | Johni Broome is no stranger to the NCAA Tournament. As a freshman at Morehead State in 2022, he got a little taste of March Madness as the Eagles won the Ohio Valley Conference, bowing out to No. 3-seed West Virginia in the first round.

Broome put up 10 points and nine rebounds with three blocks for the Eagles in the loss to the Mountaineers. He was even better in his second appearance in The Big Dance, this time in Auburn orange and blue, as the center finished with a double-double (19 points and 12 rebounds) while helping the No. 9-seed Tigers to an 83-75 victory over No. 8 Iowa.

"Johni Broome was too dominant inside," Bruce Pearl said. "Al (Flanigan) doing the job with Johni on the rebounding, not letting Iowa dominate on the glass -- they beat us on the glass, but they didn't dominate."

Broome's defense – four of his five blocks came in the second half – was big, but his four free throws in the last 2:42 of the game proved even more clutch.

"We knew they had another run in them," Broome said. "They weren't going to go away. Once they cut it to four, we just held up and said we've got to get stops and win this game. We relied on each other -- box outs, rebounds, contended shots. That's what we did to finish the game off."

It was a big performance, much needed from the big man after struggling a little in the loss to Arkansas in the SEC Tournament. In that game in Nashville, Broome shot just 1-of-6 from the free-throw line, so Iowa fouling him down the stretch might have been an intelligent play.

But he stepped up and hit all four attempts as Auburn took control in the final two minutes to face the winner of No. 1 Houston and No. 16 Northern Kentucky.

The double-double was his 10th of the season, but none were as big as the one he recorded in Legacy Arena on Thursday night in front of a packed house filled with the Auburn faithful.

"You all was out there," Broome said. "You all heard the crowd. It was electric. They gave us energy. We feed off the energy a little bit. They helped us in the second half a lot. Just gave us momentum."