LEXINGTON | For Auburn to go far in the 2025 NCAA Tournament, the Tigers need Chaney Johnson to return to the form he was playing at the beginning of February.

Good news for Bruce Pearl's squad: the forward came out of a scoring slump with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting as the Tigers routed Alabama State, 76-55, in the first round on Thursday afternoon.

A pregame pep talk from Steven Pearl might have been what lit a fire inside Johnson.

"I've done had a bad string of games, and I mean it is not easy to stay positive," he said. "He (Pearl) was just letting him know that he's with me through through the bad, and that meant a lot."

In Auburn's previous five games, Johnson had scored a total of 16 points, with a high of four in the loss to Texas A&M. That was much different from a five-game stretch starting against Oklahoma on February 4 when he averaged 14.8 points per game. In the win at Vanderbilt on February 11, he took over for some of the game, pouring in 20 points as the Tigers blew out the Commodores.

He looked much like against the Hornets, putting up seven points before halftime and looking more comfortable with his jump shot.

Johnson's biggest play, however, might have come near the end of the first half when he rebounded a missed free throw by Johni Broome, gathered the loose ball and found Miles Kelly open for a three to extend Auburn's lead to seven after Alabama State had cut it to one 44 seconds earlier.

"He's the best, hardest worker in the country, and it's just fun to see him go off," Dylan Cardwell said of Johnson. "We need that every game."

Fellow big man Broome agreed with Cardwell.

"We've been looking for that version of Chaney lately," Broome said. "He showed us that in the beginning of the year and throughout the course of the year. He kind of went through a little slump, but now he's back. It just shows how good this team can be when he's doing that."

His head coach never lost confidence that Johnson could return to where he was more than a month ago.

"I think Chaney is like one of those guys that, like, 13 and 7 for me, is like nothing for Chaney," Pearl said. "I think he's a 20, 10 guy. Even though he's not all the time, I just have that much confidence in him."