LSU unable to keep pace with No. 1 Auburn in 87-74 loss

BATON ROUGE – No. 1 Auburn abated LSU’s fast starts to begin the first and second halves and came out on top 87-74 Wednesday night at the Maravich Center.

LSU is now 12-8 on the season and 1-6 in SEC play, while Auburn improved to 19-1 and remains unblemished in league play at 7-0. LSU will host Texas on SEC Network at 5 p.m. CT on Saturday, Feb. 1.

Cam Carter led LSU with 24 points on 7-of-9 shooting, including 2-of-2 from behind the arc, and pulled down six rebounds. Dji Bailey and Jordan Sears followed with 13 and 11 points, respectively.

Johni Broome paced a quartet of Auburn Tigers with 26 points (10-of-23), 16 rebounds, 11 offensive rebounds and three blocks. Miles Kelly finished with 13 points, Chad Baker-Mazara had 11 and Tahaad Pettiford had 10 points.

LSU scored the game’s first six points, highlighted by four points, including an emphatic dunk by Carter. The Fighting Tigers built a 14-9 lead, shooting 6-for-7 after missing their first shot of the game, and although Auburn tied the game at 14, LSU went into the media timeout with a 16-14 lead after a dunk by Trey’Dez Green.

After the media timeout, Auburn took its first lead at 9:28 and went on a 12-0 run, part of an overall 17-2 run, to lead 26-16 with 7:21 remaining in the half. LSU stopped the bleeding and pulled within six points at 26-20, but Auburn pushed its lead back to double figures, leading by as many as 13 points at 39-26. Auburn went to halftime with a 41-29 advantage.

LSU turned the ball over 15 times in the opening 20 minutes, which Auburn converted into 15 points. The visiting club dominated the offensive glass 15-5, although they only accounted for two points. LSU outshot Auburn at all three levels, including from the floor at 43.5 percent (10-of-23), compared to Auburn’s 40.0 percent (18-of-45).  

LSU cut its deficit to single digits at 46-38 early in the second half, but four points by Auburn put the visitors back up by 14, 52-38 with 14:57 on the clock. A 12-3 burst and personal 7-0 run by Sears brought LSU within five points, 55-50, but after Auburn’s 30-second timeout, the visiting club responded with an 11-4 run for a 66-54 advantage.

The Bayou Bengals showed their resiliency, cutting Auburn’s lead to six points two more times, but Auburn continued to answer the challenge, extending its lead to double figures at 82-70 with 3:24 left to play before cruising to victory.

LSU shot 47.1 percent from the floor (24-of-51), including a 50.0 percent clip (14-of-28) in the second half. Auburn shot 40.0 percent from the field (32-of-80) and dominated on the boards 47-34, including a 25-11 advantage on the offense boards, leading to 20 second-chance points. Auburn also led in paint points, 40-28. Defensively, Auburn forced 20 LSU turnovers and logged 15 steals.

Post-game quotes

LSU Head Coach Matt McMahon

Opening Statement…
“I want to thank all the fans who came out tonight. It was a great student turnout and we appreciate them making it a great atmosphere here in the PMAC. A tremendous credit to Coach (Bruce) Pearl and Auburn. They have a really good basketball team. You see how they’re able to put so much pressure on you and beat you in a lot of different ways. The story is easy to write when you look at the first-half turnovers; their pressure and trapping really bothered us and then the offensive glass. It was a little bit of fool’s gold, the start to the game. We were up 6-0 and they had nine offensive rebounds in the first media timeout. Although it didn’t turn into any points there, ultimately it did as the game wore on. I thought our guys competed at a high level, but we’ve got to find ways somehow to quit turning the ball over so much and to limit second shot opportunities.”

On working on turnovers…
“It’s a challenge and I wish I had the solution at this point. I thought their traps really bothered us and their physicality on that side of the ball. They also influenced a lot of action to our left hand and really funneled things towards the shot blockers and we did not handle that well. I’ve got to find some solutions to eliminate that, it’s the difference. You look at the second half when we had it down to six, we only turned the ball over two times. From the percentages, we shot well enough in the second half; 50% from the floor and 42% from three. We didn’t shoot as well at the free-throw line as we normally have, but because we didn’t turn it over we gave ourselves an opportunity there. We’ve got to figure out something else to do from an offensive standpoint there.”

LSU Guard Cam Carter
On the LSU home crowd…
“The crowd did a good job, especially when we went on our runs. They were in tune with the game and they made it pretty noisy in there; It distracted them (Auburn) a lot. We needed that for sure.”

On the positives to take away from the past two games…
“When we’re at our best, we’re playing fast in transition and we’re really effective on the offensive glass. We have to limit everybody to one shot. When we do that, we’re super effective. I mean, you can put us against anybody and I’m taking us.”
—
Auburn Head Coach Bruce Pearl

Opening Statement…
“Johni Broome had a triple-double. He got 11 offensive rebounds and probably half of them were on his own misses. So, he just kinda went up there and I think he does that on purpose sometimes. Look, that’s a Quad 1 win. And that’s a great win for our ball club. You know, LSU obviously had a couple key injuries, but that’s still a really good team. And what’s so difficult in our league is look at their schedule so far, ok? With the exception of opening up against Vanderbilt where maybe not everybody knew how good Vanderbilt was, all of a sudden you see how good they are. Right now you see how good Vanderbilt is. But, LSU didn’t necessarily know that for the first game. Then they go on the road to Ole Miss, or on the road to Alabama, or on the road to Texas A&M. Almost everybody is going to lose those games. And then the No. 1 team in the country comes to town. That’s tough. And yet, they have pieces and they’re definitely going to win some games. This was sort of a grind. We grinded it out. I thought our defense was really good to turn a team over 20 times at home. I thought our ball screen defense, I thought the way we impacted some screens, we were aggressive without fouling. I thought that our defensive gameplan was really effective. And then, for us, we have to do a better job of finishing. We missed a lot of shots and had a lot of shots blocked. We got to do a better job there. It’s tough to win on the road.”

On player Johni Broome stepping up in the second half…
“Look, LSU started off with great effort and energy. They made some big plays. Defensively, you could see their athleticism. They were way quicker, faster, and more athletic to the ball in the first half. At least in the start, they hit us right in the mouth. They were ready to play. Our guys obviously didn’t panic. I think Miles Kelly had a couple big shots early to sort of keep us in it. Which is what great players do. And obviously I think when everybody was fatigued, Johni’s physicality took over.”

*LSU press release