LAHAINA, Hawaii — The likes of North Carolina and UConn have won the Maui Invitational title on the way to an NCAA championship the same season.
No. 4 Auburn prevailed in a loaded eight-team field that included both of those blue bloods, overpowering Memphis 90-76 in the championship game at Lahaina Civic Center on Wednesday afternoon.
[Note: See below for more photos of Auburn-Memphis in the Maui Invitational championship.]
It was the first edition of the tournament on the Valley Isle since the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires forced the event to Oahu last November.
Auburn (7-0), coached by Bruce Pearl, turned to its talented frontcourt to become the 25th different program and only the third SEC team to win the Wayne Duke Trophy. It looked every bit the part of a national title contender behind big men Johni Broome and Dylan Cardwell.
The versatile Broome, a 6-foot-10 former three-star recruit, announced himself as a national player of the year candidate this week, opening the tournament with a game-winning tip-in against No. 5 Iowa State. Against ISU, North Carolina and then Memphis, he affected all facets of the game.
“I've definitely watched this tournament most of the time growing up,” Broome said. “Probably the biggest tournament in basketball besides March Madness. … To win it, it feels amazing.”
Broome, a third-team All-American last year, was at his all-around best in the first half Wednesday, helping his team build a 47-31 lead at intermission. He finished with 21 points, 16 rebounds, six assists and four blocked shots while shooting 8-for-15.
“When he first transferred to Auburn, he was probably a little distracted and thought it was going to be easier,” said Memphis coach Penny Hardaway, who’d seen Broome soon after he transferred from Morehead State in 2022. “I think he got a reality check of what it was like to come up, and then now he understands the lay of the land. He knows how serious he has to be, knows he has to be a leader, and he's doing that now. That's a total difference from two years ago to now with him.”
The Auburn big men played off each other effectively; at one point, Broome threw a lob to Cardwell for an alley-oop, part of Cardwell’s six dunks among his 8-for-8 shooting performance for 18 points.
“I'm just happy for these guys because these guys are loving playing together,” Pearl said. “They were never on the floor together very much in the last couple years, so it's just incredible. They've got great chemistry. They trust each other. They listen to each other. As well, I believe, we've got the best front line in college basketball.”
Cardwell said that a key factor over the last year was when he stopped looking at Broome, with him he competed for playing time, as an obstacle.
“The guys in the locker room are not the opponent, and that's what you see today,” Cardwell said. “We have so many guys that are happy for one another rather than looking at them as competition, and I feel like once I let my pride go and I let that go, Johni and I's relationship really took off.”
Pearl’s Tigers shared the ball exceptionally, recording assists on 23 of 34 made field goals. Cardwell had six dimes and Chad Baker-Mazara five.
Auburn scored the first nine points of the game with four members of its starting five sinking field goals, and the Tigers extended to a double-digit lead for good with 8:38 left in the first half. Memphis got within 13 at a few points in the second half, but Auburn had an answer each time.
Until Wednesday, Memphis (6-1) had inflicted the same problems on opponents that Auburn had with an active, physical defense. Then the American Athletic Conference team experienced those issues for itself.
Auburn pressured out beyond the 3-point arc to limit Memphis (6-1) to nine long-range attempts. Memphis team hit six of them, but guard Tyrese Hunter’s impact was muted (11 points, five assists) in contrast to his audacious shooting performances over the first two days.
“They're the best 3-point shooting team in the country percentage-wise, and we just didn't want them to get too hot, and we had to make sure that we stayed on our shooters,” Cardwell said.
PJ Haggerty led Penny Hardaway’s Tigers with 27 points on 11-for-20 shooting and nine rebounds.
Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.