No. 1 Auburn bounced back in a big way Tuesday night.

Led by season-high 21 points by Denver Jones and a big contribution from Chaney Johnson off the bench, the Tigers beat Vanderbilt 80-68 at Memorial Gym.

"Denver was brilliant in the first half carrying us," said AU coach Bruce Pearl. "A great bounce-back game after the Florida game where he didn’t shoot it very well. He’s a scorer and even though he’s handling the ball, he needs to score."

Auburn improves to 22-2 overall and 10-1 in the SEC, and earns its 12th Quad 1 win of the season.

"That was a really good win against a really good basketball team," said Pearl.

Just three days after he was held to two points on 0 of 4 shooting in a 90-81 loss to Florida, Jones made 7 of 10 field goals including 5 of 7 from 3-point range. Fourteen of his 21 points came in the first half.

With AU trailing by one point six minutes into the second half, Johnson went on a personal 9-0 run with a 3-pointer and three consecutive field goals to put AU up by eight points.

The Tigers extended the lead to 16 points with two minutes remaining on a dunk by Johni Broome.

Johnson finished with 20 points on 9 of 10 shooting and Broome 17 points and seven rebounds. The pair combined for 31 second-half points.

"Chaney had the advantage on the inside. He took advantage of it. Nine-for-10 from the field, and he only goes to the line two times. He did a lot of things that were dominant," said Pearl.

Auburn shot 61.5 percent from the floor in the second half.

In a first half of extremes, AU opened up with an early 15-0 lead before VU finished with an 18-7 run to cut the lead to 34-32 at the break.

Auburn plays at Alabama Saturday afternoon in the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 matchup in SEC history. Tip-off at Coleman Coliseum is scheduled for 3 p.m. CT on ESPN.