Coming back from down nine on the road against any power conference team is a tough ask.

Attempting to do that against Houston and its tenacious defense makes it an even tougher task.

And yet, Auburn was able to do that.

The Tigers were down 41-32 with just over 15 minutes to go, and after that point, Auburn posted 42 points and outscored Houston by 14 points en route to a five-point win over the team that every major computer site had ranked as the best team in the country.

So how did this happen? How were Tahaad Pettiford and Johni Broome able to put Auburn on their backs and carry it to a win? And how about Auburn's assistants?

Let's take a deeper look:

IT'S TAHAAD TIME

Houston is a juggernaut on defense, and a big reason for that is its relentless half-court defense.

So how do you counter that if you're Auburn? Throw in your 5-star guard and let him create chaos.

Since day one, it has been clear that Tahaad Pettiford is at his best when he's speeding up tempo and leading the break, and that is exactly what Auburn needed in this game.

Also, 5-of-8 from deep didn't hurt.

"It wasn't my day (against Vermont) but it was my teammates'," Pettiford said postgame. "Coach always tells us not every game is going to be your game, but just be ready when the time comes. Today was my time."

What does running in transition do? It creates advantageous situations.

Even though Pettiford doesn't get his shot to go, the Houston defense is still trying to recover, so Broome, who had a big size advantage all night, has an easy chance at a tip in which is created by Pettiford starting the break.

Running the break as much as possible completely flipped the game for Auburn.

Houston has everyone back, but because Auburn is actively seeking out transition chances, it is able to catch Houston napping and get an easy layup off the break.

This is a great pass from Chaney Johnson out of the post as well.

Pettiford simply makes things happen.

And he makes this finish look easy, but it's not at all.

Keep in mind, he is a left-handed player driving right and finishing with his right hand while also trying to avoid Joseph Tugler, who has a 7-foot-6 wingspan.

Even if this shot doesn't fall, it's still an advantageous opportunity created by the freshman which is much more preferable compared to settling into the halfcourt against Houston's death grip of a defense.

By this point, Pettiford just had Houston off balance and was getting whatever he wanted in transition.

You know what this does? It wears the defense out.

You know what it also does? It opens up the rest of Pettiford's offense.

Auburn put up 46 points in the second half and 12 of them came on the break.

Look, when a confident basketball player is feeling themself, it can be impossible to stop.

And that's exactly what happened with Pettiford.

The fact that he took and made a stepback three from the corner is crazy in itself, but let's remember, this play was right after a timeout due to a quick Cougar 5-0 run with just under six to go.

A miss here and who knows what happens.

"And then the freshman, Tahaad Pettiford," Pearl said. "Stepped up, showed up. Big nuts. Big nuts. That's what it takes."

And when a player is hot, what do you do for him in half-court settings? You draw up action for him.

Remember Zoom action? Auburn used it quite a bit in this game.

Here's a refresher from last year.

There is a lot going on in this play. Right before zooming, Pettiford back screens for Denver Jones, who actually is open on the cut, but Broome rolls with the dribble handoff, and because there is so much action going on, Pettiford ends up with an open shot at the top of the arc.

Let's talk a bit more about Auburn's half-court playcalling.

BURGO AND STEVEN

The plays that Auburn ran in the half-court, especially in the second half, were about as good as it gets.

It's part of what led to Auburn scoring 46 in the second half on 1.53 points per possession.

In addition to that, the Tigers shot 57 percent from the field in the second half, which, as Bruce Pearl said postgame, is almost unheard of against a Kelvin Sampson defense.

And who gets the credit? According to Pearl, it was all his assistants.

"Steven Pearl had the scout, just an incredible game plan. He is ready," Pearl said. "Mike Burgomaster called every offensive play in the second half. I went with every play he put forward. And we did a pretty good job designing some plays this week. We had some things this week that we hadn't shown yet -- particularly in the second half, particularly late."

It's hard to find advantageous opportunities against Houston, so when they're found, they need to be exploited.

That's what Auburn did when the Cougars put two defenders on Broome.

The initial idea was to swing, swing, swing until getting the ball to Broome in the post, but Houston sees this and brings two to Broome.

"They had one of the best defenses in the country," Broome said. "The coaches drew a great game plan up. We started putting in ball screens and allowing them to put two on the ball, then taking advantage of the disadvantages. We put the ball in Tahaad's and Denver's and our guards hands, and they gave me good looks, and I just finished."

What does this mean? The skip pass is open, and Chad Baker-Mazara hits it.

What does that lead to? A scrambling defense, and because Baker-Mazara and Johnson are both one pass away, Houston can't double and it leads to Broome sealing off his man to tie the game.

Want to know how advantageous it is that Pettiford is great with both hands? Here's an example of Auburn playing right into that.

Watch Broome's screen here. Initially, he acts if he's going to set it to allow Pettiford to drive left, but he flips, and because Emanuel Sharp reacts to initial screen, it knocks him out of the action. That's what we call misdirection.

From there, instead of setting a hard screen, Broome slips and creates a two-on-one with Pettiford and Tugler.

Pettiford makes the right read and it's an easy two points.

Okay, so what do we notice here? It's very similar to the Zoom action that Auburn ran to get Pettiford an open three the possession prior.

But because Pettiford just made a three and was on a heater, the defense overcommits and brings two to the ball. How do you beat that? Quick, decisive passes.

All offseason, Pearl said that Pettiford was going to be more of a combo guard, but this play was very point guard-like from the freshman.

When Houston brings two, instead of immediately passing to Broome, Pettiford stares down Jones to make the defense commit before swinging to Broome, who again, has a size advantage down low.

Again, Houston brings two to the ball and we see some more Broome screen setting navigation which killed Sharp all night.

Every time Houston brought two to the ball, Broome slipped, and because Pettiford didn't have the angle, he quickly swung to Baker-Mazara who quickly finds an open Broome.

Tugler's recovery attempt is to try and steal the entry pass, but he misses and the weak-side help has no shot.

This is how you use the defense's aggression against itself.

Because Houston was sending two to the ball and Auburn was making quick, decisive passes, it meant that the Cougars were constantly in scramble mode.

Now, they're still able to effectively guard when doing that, but Auburn was able to take full advantage.

As soon as he's doubled, Pettiford swings to Broome on the wing.

Notice how in control Broome is on the fake compared to Terrance Arceneaux, who is in complete scramble mode.

A simple pass fake gets two guys to bite and Broome gets an open lane out of it.

Using Houston's defense against itself.

This is just nasty stuff from Burgomaster.

Watch Baker-Mazara. He initially is going to set an inverted screen for Broome, but he flips and Auburn runs its zoom action.

This leads to the defense basically freezing as two guys go to take Baker-Mazara, and it leads to Broome finding daylight in the lane and finishing through contact.

Let's end with some more misdirection.

The play is set up like the ball is going to be swung to get Broome a post up on the right block, but instead, it's a fake screen from Pettiford, and Johnson swings it back to Jones, and because of the misdirection, Broome finds himself wide open under the basket.

A beautiful game from a beautifully called game from Auburn's staff. The Tigers will be in great hands, even when the elder Pearl decides to hang it up, whenever that may be.

"Great execution and great game," Pearl said. "Great organization. Great team effort."

AUBURN CAN DEFEND TOO

Houston has the best adjusted defensive rating in the country at 90.8, but Auburn isn't too far behind at No. 4 with its rating being 91.5.

They showed why, especially in the second half.

Auburn, like Houston, was putting multiple bodies to the ball, but in multiple different ways.

Auburn's defense can defend in multiple different ways. When guarding pick and rolls, the Tiger defense has shown it can switch, double, ice, trap, hedge or go up to touch. It's what makes Auburn's defense tough to learn for newcomers and tougher to break as opponents.

In this game, Auburn was daring Houston to make either advanced skip passes or fit balls in perfect pockets on pick-and-rolls.

It didn't do either.

Tugler has the short roll, and Auburn dared LJ Cryer to make that pass, but instead, he traps himself in the corner and throws the ball away.

Houston had 10 turnovers compared to just seven assists, and this is a big reason why.

This is all Johnson.

Johnson is tasked with guarding J'Wan Roberts, and knowing he's not an outside threat, Johnson goes aggressively under on both screen attempts and is able to meet him at the rim and make it an incredibly tough finish.

And this is exactly why Auburn defended the way it did.

Auburn dares Sharp to make the pocket pass on the roll, and he does, but he does it a touch too early, and guess who is in perfect position for the steal? It's Johnson.

Part of what made Cryer struggle is just the sheer amount of bodies that he had to see.

On this possession alone, he is guarded by a strong, physical defender in Johnson, along with Jones who is a fundamental, solid defender. And he also got a bit of Pettiford, who will get in the face of anyone.

Roberts tried to go at Broome quite a bit in this game, and very rarely did it work out for him.

This is one of Broome's five blocks from Saturday's game.

Let's talk about Denver Jones.

Jones only scored four points and yet was one of Auburn's more impactful players. How? His defense.

Pearl threw multiple bodies at Cryer in the second half including Johnson and Chris Moore, but Jones was the main defender and he helped hold Cryer to a second-half shooting performance of 3-of-11.

"Denver Jones is one of the best defensive guards in the country and nobody talks about it, but I'm going to," Pearl said. "Denver Jones is one of the best defensive guards in the country. He is big, strong, physical, fast, powerful and he wants to win."

That's a shot Cryer can hit, but that is an off-balanced floater from a right-handed player who drove left.

That's a shot you love to force as a defense.

CHAD BAKER-MAZARA?!

I want to touch on CBM real quick because he had a weird game, but Auburn does not win without him.

Baker-Mazara picked up two early fouls and was a non-factor in the first half.

He had two silly fouls in the second half as well, but just as Chad taketh, Chad giveth.

Baker-Mazara only had seven points on the night, but here's how and when he got them:

A made three to give Auburn a 57-56 lead with 5:14 to go, its first lead since the first half.

He also made two free throws with 50 seconds left to push Auburn's lead from one point to three.

And he also made the shot above to give Auburn a lead that it'd never relinquish.

Baker-Mazara can be a frustrating player to watch at times, no doubt, but this is why you put up with that.

FINAL THOUGHTS

- Auburn went to Houston without two rotation players and beat Houston. I really hope y'all understand how amazing that is. If Auburn can win this game then there's no reason it can't win any game on its schedule. It won't go undefeated, obviously, but there won't be a game on the schedule that Auburn can't win, and that includes March games.

- Also, 46 points in a half against a Kelvin Sampson defense in Houston is mind-blowing.

- Johni Broome posted 20 points and nine rebounds with five blocks and no one is talking about it, which I think is a compliment to Broome.

- Chaney Johnson had 11 points and 10 rebounds. Just think that's worth mentioning.

- Auburn is No. 1 on KenPom for the first time along with being No. 3 on Torvik and No. 5 on EvanMiya.

- This team is really good and can absolutely win a title. Just enjoy the ride.