Jaylin Williams gets hot early, Auburn basketball holds off Mississippi State late in win

AUBURN — With a 69-63 win over Mississippi State in Neville Arena on Saturday, Auburn basketball has extended its home winning streak to 28 games. It's the second-longest active streak in the nation, behind only Gonzaga's 75 straight at home going into the evening.

Jaylin Williams led No. 22 Auburn (14-3, 4-1 SEC) with 21 points and shot 8-for-15 from the field. Allen Flanigan, who started in place of the injured Chris Moore, added 10 more. Wendell Green Jr. finished with 17 points and three assists.

The Bulldogs (12-5, 1-4) scored the first points and led briefly as the teams traded scores, but after a jumper from Flanigan put Auburn ahead four minutes into the game, the Tigers never looked back, holding onto the lead for the final 36 minutes. This comes after Auburn led for nearly the entire second half in a win over Ole Miss on Tuesday and had a wire-to-wire victory over Arkansas a week ago. The Tigers have won three straight games since dropping one on the road against Georgia on Jan. 4.

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Redshirt senior forward Tolu Smith had a team-high 20 points for Mississippi State to go along with his 10 rebounds.

Auburn will have a four-day break before returning to action against LSU on Jan. 18 (6 p.m. CT, ESPN2) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in the front end of a two-game road trip, with South Carolina to follow.

Jaylin Williams keeps Auburn alive in first half

If you removed the production Williams brought in the opening 20 minutes, Auburn would've gone into halftime with just 15 points on 30% from the field. Luckily for coach Bruce Pearl, he had the senior forward to lean on when his offense was sputtering.

Williams scored 15 points in the first half, including a quick 13 that came in the game's first 7:16. He also tacked on three rebounds, an assist and a steal before the break, captaining the Tigers and keeping them afloat until reinforcements could arrive.

Those reinforcements came in the form of Green and Johni Broome, who combined for 23 points in the second half. Green scored 11 of his 17 points in the final 2:13 to help close the door on the Bulldogs, who were trailing by just four when he connected on a 3-pointer to extend Auburn's lead late.

Not many free throws early, but Bulldogs eat inside

Smith came into Saturday's contest with 114 free throws attempted on the season, No. 1 in the conference and tied for 13th-best in the nation. Keeping Broome, who had four straight double-doubles coming in, out of foul trouble was crucial.

The Tigers largely accomplished that as Broome went into halftime with just one foul and finished with four. They paid for it in rim protection, though. Auburn is top-five nationally in blocks, with Broome's 2.7 per game being a prominent part of that.

But the Bulldogs attacked Auburn's interior defense throughout. Mississippi State outscored Auburn 40-24 in the paint, including all 22 of its points in the first half.

The Bulldogs ended up shooting 28 free throws, making 21 of them.

Turnovers, missed shots both ways

The Tigers came in with the 37th-best scoring defense in the country and the Bulldogs were ranked No. 4 in the same category, allowing just 63.2 and 56.8 points per game, respectively.

Both of those marks are top three in the SEC, behind only Tennessee.

Neither side budged much before halftime. The teams went into the break shooting a combined 40.4% from the field and had 23 turnovers. The Bulldogs particularly struggled in the opening 20 minutes, missing all of their shots from 3-point range and giving the ball away 13 times, which led to nine points for Auburn on the other end.

The Tigers, as they've done nearly every game this season, had a better second half offensively. They scored 41 points, shot 43.6% from the field and made five of their 11 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc.

Richard Silva is the Auburn beat writer for the Montgomery Advertiser. He can be reached via email at rsilva@gannett.com or on Twitter @rich_silva18.

This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Jaylin Williams gets hot early, leads Auburn basketball to win over MSU