'We didn't play our best.' Bruce Pearl describes Auburn's opening NCAA Tournament win.

LEXINGTON, Ky. — The top seed Auburn Tigers are moving on in March Madness.

That’s hardly a surprise, though.

Auburn, both a 1 seed and the top overall seed in this year’s men’s NCAA Tournament, dispatched of 16 seed (and play-in game winner) Alabama State by a 83-63 score in the round of 64 on Thursday at Rupp Arena in downtown Lexington.

Head coach Bruce Pearl’s Tigers eased to victory behind 23 points from senior guard Miles Kelly and a double-double from potential national player of the year winner Johni Broome. The former Morehead State star had 14 points and 11 rebounds in his double-double effort.

Next up, Auburn will take on 9 seed Creighton in a round of 32 matchup on Saturday at Rupp. The Bluejays impressively dispatched 8 seed Louisville earlier Thursday at Rupp.

It’s been a shaky start to the NCAA Tournament for the SEC, which got 14 of its 16 schools into the field of 68. But Auburn took care of its business Thursday, and the Tigers will look to do so again Saturday.

Until then, here’s everything Pearl said after Auburn topped Alabama State.

— Opening statement.

Just congratulate Alabama State on a great season, a historic season for the Hornets. They represented their university in an outstanding way.

They were a formidable opponent. We didn’t play our best, but I think they had a lot to do with it. So I just give them a great deal of credit.

Miles was terrific. Tahaad was terrific at times. Johni dominated on the inside when he had to, but trust me we can play — and we’ll need to play — a lot better.

Again, we missed 14 free throws, we made 18, and that’s going to catch us in a close game. These next games have a chance to be closer, so we’ve got to sharpen up in that area.

Part of that is valuing possessions, and if there’s one thing I can get my guys from this point forward to lock into right now, did we value every possession on the defensive end? Did we value any offensive end scoring through contact? Did we just rely on the whistle? And then would we finish plays?

That’s the biggest difference right now between the way we were playing earlier in the season and the way we’re playing right now. You can do that against a team that you’re better than, but you can’t do that — we won’t be able to do that from this point forward.

— Question about how Auburn prepared to play against a team with an upset mindset.

Well, that Alabama State had already accomplished more than most of the guys on my team. Dylan Cardwell, Johni Broome, JP Pegues, and Chris Moore are the only guys on my team to win an NCAA Tournament game going into this game. Alabama State, that whole team had already won a game. That whole team had accomplished more than our team had accomplished.

Going back to Yale, we played better against Yale than we did tonight. Give Alabama State credit.

— Question about Miles Kelly’s performance.

I think what it does and what gets rewarded is Miles is one of the most consistent trainers, puts the time in, and is disciplined. So you love to see guys get rewarded who grind, do the right things, train the right way, unselfish.

And the thing I loved about Miles’ shots, they were all shots within the framework of the offense. They were all shots coming off of screens. They were all shots where everybody in the building knew he was going to take that shot.

The one thing about Miles Kelly is you absolutely know what you’re going to get. I think that’s why Miles has got a chance to be one of the better pros that we have on this team because he’s going to 3 and D at the next level, you can count on it.

That maturity, that taking care of business is a part of who he is, and I think the scouts see that clearly.

— Question about Pearl saying that Auburn played better in last season’s NCAA Tournament loss to Yale than Auburn did against Alabama State.

Yeah, we shot 50 percent, we had a great assist-to-turnover ratio, we missed some free throws in that game too, but we actually played better against Yale.

— Follow-up question.

Yeah, I thought our effort and energy could have been better. I thought Alabama State was able to beat us off the closeouts a little bit too much. I thought our bigs did a pretty good job of challenging shots at the rim. But we just weren’t sharp.

— Another follow-up question.

I think the other thing too, our teams always play with great effort and energy, or you have to or our system doesn’t really work, and I just think we didn’t tonight.

— Question about how Auburn must value possessions at both ends of the court.

I would say it’s been the last month or so, where I would say prior to that probably we were just a little sharper. Valuing a possession is making free throws. Valuing a possession is not having a careless turnover. Forced turnovers will happen.

Taking shots that we know — that play wasn’t designed for that look, and you know it, and your teammates know it, and yet you do it anyways.

So if we can get on the same page a little bit more, and like I said, value that possession, we’ve got a chance.

Creighton is still a very veteran team, that they’ve been through it. They’re not going to beat themselves. We’ll have a great game plan together, but it’s going to be a very, very tough second round for us.

— Question about Tahaad Pettiford.

It was great to see him bounce back, great to see him — even after he missed his first couple shots, and you’re like, oh, this is going to continue, he just obviously lit up.

The thing I liked about his game tonight, he was better defensively. He got 50-50 balls and rebounds. He used his speed and his quickness and his athleticism. Alabama State is a very quick, very athletic team, and Tahaad Pettiford is as quick as any of them out there. I thought his presence was a huge spark for us coming off the bench.

Both he and Chaney Johnson, if you look at Tahaad was plus 22, Chaney was plus 19. Those two guys played great for us coming off the bench.

— Question about if Auburn played well enough against Alabama State to beat Creighton in the second round.

No, we won’t beat Creighton playing the way we played tonight. We can play better. We know we can tighten things up. But that’s the thing about the tournament, we will absolutely get to the next game.

One of the things that we’ll do, even in a short period of time, we’re going to look at today. We’re going to look at it a little bit and go, okay, this is how we’re going to be done on Saturday against a much better, much bigger, much different kind of a basketball team.

So hopefully we can learn. I’m very pleased with the win. At the end of the day on Saturday, there are going to be 32 teams left, and Auburn is still one of them.

— Question about Chaney Johnson.

I think Chaney is like one of those guys that like 13 and 7 for me is like nothing for Chaney. I think he’s a 20, 10 guy. Even though he’s not all the time, I just have that much confidence in him.

When he gets it, I think he’s going to make a shot. When we get it inside, I think it’s a bucket or a foul. Chaney is able to — we did a lot of switching tonight. Chaney was terrific defensively, keeping guys in front.

Again, another guy that does it the right way, trains the right way. Loves the Lord. Puts the Lord first in everything he does. So Chaney Johnson can call God any time he wants to. They have a direct line. They have a direct connection.

— Question about Auburn’s sense of urgency on the court.

I think cap delivered the message. I think the message was great. His teammates understood it. Hopefully that message will be delivered again on Saturday.

— Question about Auburn’s ability to play in transition.

We’ve got a few easy ones. We could have done a better job attacking pressure. The 1-3-1 bothered us more than it should have. Again, this is Alabama State, they do a nice job of mixing things up. They make you think and make you do a lot of things you haven’t had to do. Haven’t played against a 1-3-1 in two months.

That’s why Coach does a nice job. They’re very versatile defensively.