No. 1 Auburn missed enough open shots, even uncontested shots, and enough free throws to beat No. 23 Georgia going away Saturday at Stegeman Coliseum.

Those things are footnotes in another big day for Auburn basketball. The Tigers could have won easily. They didn’t, and in the end it didn’t matter. They escaped Athens with a 70-68 victory, and that mattered a lot.

Without All-America Johni Broome, the Tigers have proved their worth. They blew out No. 15 Mississippi State at home 88-66 on Tuesday and handed Georgia its first home loss of the season on Saturday to improve to 17-1 overall and 5-0 in the SEC.

Give the Bulldogs credit. They wiped out most of an early 17-point Auburn lead. They wiped out most of a nine-point lead down the stretch. But after they led 2-0, they never led or even tied the game again.

The Tigers have a full week now to prepare for Tennessee’s visit to Neville Arena next Saturday. Broome was on the bench Saturday wearing a protective boot. Will he be ready to play against the Vols?

Winning all five of their SEC games, especially with three of them on the road, is quite an accomplishment from the Tigers. Being 10-1 in Quad-1 games is astonishing. Six wins over ranked team ties a program record. That’s why they are ranked No. 1 in the nation and should be.

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More thoughts:

Freshman Auburn guard has gotten better with every game, and he was the star of the game Saturday with 24 points. He was 5-of-7 from 3-point range.

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Auburn shot just 39.5 percent from the field, partly because of open shots that were missed and partly because of Georgia’s defense. The Tigers made up for it by making 10 3-pointers in 23 attempts.

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Both team struggled at the free throw line. Auburn was 12-for-20 and Georgia 9-for-20.

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The Georgia crowd at Stegeman Coliseum was loud and active. Every road trip is going to be more of the same. When the No. 1 team in the nation comes to town, it’s a big deal.

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Georgia, led by freshman Asa Newell, is better than it has been in a long time. Newell is a projected lottery pick.

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There were some strange happenings at the end of Saturday’s game. The clock ran out with Auburn up three, but replay said Georgia was at the line with 0.6 seconds left. Tyrin Lawrence made the first and intentionally missed the second. Auburn’s Chaney Johnson couldn’t hold the rebound and it went out of bounds. The officials said 0.3 seconds remained. So, that meant the shot was missed, Johnson had his hands on it and it went out of bounds in 0.3 seconds. I’m sorry, but that doesn’t compute if the clock was started on time.