AUBURN | With All-American Johni Broome sidelined with an early injury, No. 2 Auburn needed one of its bigs to step up.

Chaney Johnson was ready, willing and able.

The senior scored an AU career-high 26 points to lead the Tigers to a 100-59 win over Georgia State Tuesday night at Neville Arena.

"We always have the next man up mentality," said Johnson. "With Johni going down, I knew I would have to have a little more workload. BP was getting me the ball in the right spots. My teammates were getting me the ball in the right spots."

Johnson shot 12 of 14 from the floor including five dunks and added eight rebounds and four assists.

"Chaney Johnson is not starting. So what," said AU coach Bruce Pearl. "Chaney Johnson is putting the work in. Don’t have Johni, who do we go to? Chaney Johnson. He delivers. Great example of staying right and ready."

Two other AU players scored in double-digits including Chad Baker-Mazara with 19 and Denver Jones with 17. Baker-Mazara added four rebounds and six assists.

Broome separated his right shoulder going for a rebound just 2:18 into the game and didn’t return. Pearl said he would be checked out on Wednesday.

Auburn led 43-31 at the break and started the second half on an 11-3 run to build a 20-point lead.

AU’s defense played a huge part in the win, forcing GSU into a season-high 20 turnovers, which AU converted into 30 points. Led by Johnson, AU also out-scored GSU 50-15 off the bench.

"I'm going to give Denver Jones the credit for leading our guards and I'm going to give the other guards credit for just putting more time, attention, effort and energy into it," said Pearl. "Big part of the difference between this year and last year is the way our guards are defending. Big."

Auburn returns to action against No. 16 Purdue Saturday afternoon at Legacy Arena in Birmingham, Ala. Tip-off is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. CT on ESPN.