LSU Hangs With No. 1 Auburn, But Falls to 1-6 In SEC With Loss

GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

The January from Hell is over for the LSU basketball team.

And the Walking Dead Tigers may finally be able to start a run, or at least breathe, in February after their third straight game against a top 10 team and third consecutive loss, 87-74, to No. 1 Auburn Wednesday night in front of 10,998 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

That followed losses at No. 4 Alabama and No. 10 Texas A&M over the last two Saturdays for the Tigers (12-8, 1-6 Southeastern Conference) and a previous loss at No. 23 Ole Miss. Two other early January losses were to two teams now ranked – No. 24 Vanderbilt and at No. 20 Missouri.

THE WORST MAY BE OVER FOR LSU

Now, LSU plays five of its next six games against unranked teams, starting Saturday at home against Texas (5 p.m., SEC Network), which was 14-6 and 3-4 in the SEC going into a game at Ole Miss late Wednesday.

“Obviously, we’re desperate to get back in the win column,” LSU coach Matt McMahon said.

“That’s a real good team,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said of the Tigers. “Look at their schedule. They just played at Alabama. Then the No. 1 team in the country comes to them. They’ve got pieces.”

LSU again was not able to piece its pieces together long enough. The Tigers shot better than Auburn from 3-point range – 8 of 22 to 8 of 25. But they turned it over 15 times in the first half in falling behind, 41-29, at the half. And they were destroyed on the boards, 47-34, and in particular by Auburn’s 25 offensive rebounds and 20 second chance points.

You knew LSU was in trouble when Auburn (19-1, 7-0 SEC) collected six offensive rebounds on its first possession. It didn’t score, but it looked like it was playing a JV team. Three more offensive rebounds followed on Auburn’s next possession without a score again, and LSU took a 6-0 lead over the first 2:20 as the crowd roared.

“They were ready to play. You could see their athleticism, and they hit us right in the mouth,” Pearl said.

“That was a little bit of fool’s gold when we were up 6-0 with the way they were rebounding and as the game wore on,” McMahon said.

Still, LSU erased a 52-38 deficit at the 15:18 mark of the second half to get within five at 55-50 on a Jordan Sears 3-pointer that closed a 12-3 run at the 13:07 mark. But the Tigers would get no closer and trailed by double digits for most of rest of the game.

“We knew we had to come out in the second half fast, or we were going to get blown out,” said guard Cam Carter, who led the Tigers with 24 points.

“Auburn always made the next play,” McMahon said. “We never could get that big stop.”

Guard Dji Bailey added 13 for LSU, and Sears scored 11. Forward Corey Chest, who exploded for 18 rebounds at Alabama, had only seven after suffering a foot injury in the first half. He did return to the game.

Auburn All-American center Johni Broome led all scorers with 26 points and had a game-high 16 rebounds, including 11 on the offensive side with five of those coming on those previously mentioned first two Auburn possessions. Over that stretch, he rebounded his own miss three times.

“I think half his offensive rebounds were on his own misses,” Pearl kidded. “I think he does that on purpose sometimes.”

Broome had a curious triple-double as he missed 13 shots. Three other Auburn players scored in double figures – guard Miles Kelly with 13, forward Chad Baker-Mazara with 11 and seven assists, and guard Tahaad Pettiford with 10.

“They’re the No. 1 team,” Carter said. “They’re a really talented team. Johni Broome did a lot of damage. That’s probably the separator right there.”

One of them, at least.

“That’s a good defensive team,” Pearl said of LSU. “Nothing around the basket was easy. They’re definitely going to win some games.”