LSU men’s basketball coach Johnny Jones didn’t mince words when he summed up his team’s performance against visiting Auburn on Thursday.
“We wasted a great opportunity tonight,” Jones said.
In one of its closest games of the season, LSU (16-6, 5-4 Southeastern Conference) couldn’t keep pace with the physical play and sharpshooting of Auburn (11-11, 3-6 SEC) and fell, 81-77, at the PMAC.
It was the second consecutive loss for LSU, both against teams with records below .500. For Auburn, the victory snapped a four-game losing streak.
LSU outscored Auburn in the paint (44-30) on second-chance opportunities (24-13) and won the rebounding battle (45-38). LSU also outshot Auburn from the field, 43.9 percent to 42.6.
Yet despite controlling the game in a variety of statistics, Jones said his team lost because it couldn’t match Auburn’s tenacity.
“Unfortunately in this game, you can’t turn it on and off,” Jones said. “You have to get it from start to finish, play every second of every play and have an edge about you. When you don’t, bad things are going to happen to you. We got treated to that tonight.”
Sophomore forward Jordan Mickey tallied a team-high 23 points and 12 rebounds for LSU, which also got 17 points from sophomore guard Tim Quarterman and 14 from sophomore forward Jarell Martin.
Auburn senior guard KT Harrell led all scorers with 28 points, going 5-of-9 from 3-point range. As a team, Auburn hit 45 percent (9-of-20) of its 3-pointers compared to LSU’s 4-for-17 clip from beyond the arc.
“We had to make 3’s, take some charges and turn LSU over,” said Auburn coach Bruce Pearl. “That was a big key. And we couldn’t let those guys have a big run up.”
Pearl’s players kept to his strategy, never allowing the home team to build any momentum.
“It seemed like every time we’d [score], they would come down and hit a big shot,” Mickey said. “They executed their offense, they were able to get what they wanted, they ran their plays and got open.”
But LSU had its chances, most notably when junior guard Josh Gray went to the charity stripe with his team trailing 77-75. But Gray missed the second of two free throws with 11.5 seconds left, and Harrell hit two on the ensuing possession to give Auburn a three-point advantage.
Auburn senior guard Antoine Mason then iced the game with a pair of free throws following LSU’s 15th turnover of the game.
Aside from LSU’s continuing turnover woes on offense, it couldn’t stop the three-headed monster of Harrell, Mason and junior forward Cinmeon Bowers on defense. The trio totaled 68 points, with Mason and Harrell going a combined 8-for-13 from 3-point territory.
With Harrell and Mason hitting from deep, Bowers controlled the inside. Bowers — who drew a double-technical foul with Martin after the two tangled in the second half — muscled his way to 16 points and 10 boards. It was Bowers’ 13th double-double of the season.
Auburn came out firing the long ball to start. Auburn, which entered the game as the SEC’s fourth-worst 3-point shooting team, went 6-for-12 from beyond the arc in the first half.
But LSU kept pace with 16 second-chance points and trailed 41-39 at the break.
LSU has two days to rest before hosting Alabama (14-8, 4-5 SEC) at 5 p.m. Saturday at the PMAC, the second of the Tigers’ three-game homestand. The Crimson Tide recently ended a two-game losing skid with a 62-49 victory against Missouri Wednesday, but it was just its second win in seven games.
But with the losses now piling up for LSU, Mickey said the Tigers must lean on one another to avoid digging themselves in a further hole.
“We just have to stick together,” Mickey said. “Stay positive. We can’t let guys separate and try to break off from the team. [We have to] pull together.”
You can reach David Gray on Twitter @dgray_TDR.
