LEXINGTON | It wasn’t pretty, but it wasn’t Yale either.

No. 1 seed Auburn beat No. 16 seed Alabama State 83-63 behind Miles Kelly’s 23 points in the first round of the NCAA Tournament Thursday afternoon at Rupp Arena.

The win comes 363 days after an opening-round 78-76 upset loss to the Bulldogs in last season’s East Regional.

"First of all, give Alabama State credit for being here and having the run like they did," said AU coach Bruce Pearl. "I thought we lacked some effort and energy, some focus. Thank God Miles Kelly didn't. We definitely had a couple of guys really step up."

Kelly, who made his first four 3-point attempts, shot 8 of 16 from the floor and 7 of 15 from beyond the arc. Just three weeks earlier, Kelly torched Kentucky for 30 points on 9 of 14 3-pointers at Rupp.

Johni Broome added the 79th double-double of his career with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Denver Jones had eight points, four rebounds and six assists.

AU got solid play off its bench. Tahaad Pettiford had 16 points, five rebounds and five assists, and Chaney Johnson 13 points and seven rebounds.

Auburn led by 13 points midway through the first half before going on a nearly seven-minute stretch without a field goal as ASU closed to within a point. AU then closed the half on a 9-0 run to lead 41-31 at the break.

"We've got to put together a full, 40-minute game if we're going to be successful, especially this late in the tournament," said Jones. "I feel like we came out in the second half, took the criticism. We knew we had to come out and play hard, win 50-50 balls, get every rebound.

"It felt like when Alabama State made their run, they were just playing harder than us."

AU opened up a 20-point lead eight minutes into the second half and led comfortably the rest of the way.

Auburn out-rebounded ASU 46-35 and had a 29-14 advantage in bench points.

Auburn, 29-5, will play No. 9 seed Creighton Saturday in the second round. The tip-off time will be announced Thursday night.