AUBURN — It was a long two weeks of rehabilitation and urgency for Auburn All-American center Johni Broome.

After turning his left ankle seriously against South Carolina two weeks ago, Broome missed two games before finally returning to the practice courts during the middle of last week. He wore a protective boot around the practice gym and around campus up until Wednesday.

Broome practiced on Thursday and Friday, but still entered Saturday somewhat of a game time decision. During the day Saturday, the final decision was made that Broome would indeed play, but he wouldn’t start.

Three minutes into the game, he took the court, and 30 minutes later, Broome finished with a game-high 16 points, 13 rebounds and three more blocked shots.

Against the nation’s No. 1 defense, it was the kind of game that should vault Broome back atop the National Player of the Year standings.

“It felt amazing to go out there and compete with my brothers,” Broome said. “This week was very rough. Ultimately, I wanted to be out there to help them win, help them grind it out. It was a rough one, but we got it done.”

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Broome credited Senior Athletic Trainer Clark Pearson and Director of Sports Performance Damon Davis, among others, for aiding in his return. In all, Broome spent 10-hour days rehabbing and preparing for Tennessee during the last week, culminating in 33 minutes of action on Saturday night.

When asked postgame what the percentage health of his ankle was, Broome gave a quick answer.

“Good enough to play,” he said.

And it also didn’t hurt Broome’s chances of playing when he woke up on Saturday morning to pieces of paper with the Tennessee logo drawn on it stuck underneath his windshield. Broome assumed it was Tennessee fans doing some good-natured taunting.

“At that moment, I knew I was playing no matter what,” he said.

In the final minute, Broome racked up two rebounds and one all-important assist to Miles Kelly for the game-winning three. Broome said the under-4 timeout, with Tennessee up by four, it was do-or-die time for the Tigers.

“Let’s get four stops,” Broome said of the message in the huddle. “The offense will come.”

The offense did come, as Tahaad Pettiford hit a floater to bring Auburn within two, followed by Kelly’s big three, and then another free throw by Pettiford, giving Auburn a 6-0 run to end the game.

While Auburn sits at 18-1 on the season, with seven ranked wins and 11 Quad I wins, things haven’t come easy. The Tigers’ win on Saturday was their sixth win by five points or less this season. It’s quite the contrast to last season, when nearly every game Auburn won was by double digits.

“Last year, we won every game by double digits. This year, we beat South Carolina at the buzzer, then Texas, close game, Georgia close game, here close game, Maui close games, Houston close game,” Broome said.

“You go down the line on how many close games we’ve had and it shows the grit of this team. The last four minutes, if it’s a close game, we huddle up and rely on our defense.”

Given Broome’s performance, is there any mystery heading into a new week about Broome’s health and whether he will return to the starting lineup? The short answer from Bruce Pearl: no.

“He’ll be back,” Pearl said. “Oh yea, he’s back.”