AUBURN, Ala. — Revenge can be sweet, but revenge in dominating fashion can be even sweeter, as the LSU men’s basketball team discovered Tuesday night in Auburn, Alabama. 
Nearly three weeks after falling to Auburn at home, LSU emphatically returned the favor, shooting a season-best 57.8 percent from the field while never trailing during a 84-61 victory in Auburn Arena. 
The victory gave LSU (20-8, 9-6 Southeastern Conference) its second consecutive victory and its third in four games. It also gave LSU coach Johnny Jones his second straight 20-win season, but it’s only the third for an LSU coach in the last nine years. 
Auburn (12-16, 4-11 SEC) struggled from 3-point range after scorching LSU in its 81-77 victory Feb. 5 at the PMAC. 
LSU sophomore forward Jarell Martin and his teammates watched highlights of that game prior to Tuesday night, and memories of Jones criticizing his team for not playing with an “edge” flooded back. 
Martin said Tuesday’s game was about “payback.” 
“They walked into our home and beat us, so it was a must that we come into their home and beat them,” Martin said. 
LSU got its payback against Auburn, holding it to 28 percent (7-of-25) from beyond the arc and 37.7 percent (20-for-53) from the field. 
LSU also shut down Auburn guards Antoine Mason and KT Harrell, who entered the contest as the SEC’s leading 3-point shooter. After combining for 52 points and eight 3-pointers in the first meeting, Harrell and Mason went 2-of-8 from beyond the arc and totaled 20 points. 
LSU sophomore guard Tim Quarterman — who finished with eight points and six assists — was the primary defender on Harrell, and he stymied the sharpshooter to 33.3 percent from deep. 
“I just wanted to play physical and make sure he didn’t start scoring early,” Quarterman said. “On every screen, I just had to stay attached to him and make sure I didn’t lose him on the floor.”
While LSU controlled the tempo on the defensive end, it lit up the nets on the offensive side, especially in the second half. LSU shot 62.1 percent from the floor after halftime, which helped turn a three-point game into a rout. 
After senior guard K.C. Ross-Miller hit a jumper to pull Auburn within three, LSU exploded on a 15-0 run. Freshman guard Jalyn Patterson said an animated Martin was the trigger behind the explosive burst.  
“They did bring it in within three, and I remember Jarell [said], ‘We have to get some shutouts. We’re not trying to lose,’” Patterson said. “We all just dug in defensively and did what we were doing all game.”  
Nine of the 15 points came off 3-pointers, and the other six were the result of old-fashioned three-point plays from Martin, who scored 25 points and grabbed 12 rebounds for his 12th double-double of the season. 
LSU also got threes from junior guard Keith Hornsby and Patterson, who finished with career-highs in both points (16) and assists (seven). 
Jones wasn’t surprised by Auburn’s late run, but he said he also wasn’t surprised by his team’s response. 
“It did not take a whole lot of trying to get prepared for [Tuesday night’s] game,” Jones said. “We knew in the second half they were not going to go away. They came back out energized and played well. We’re fortunate that our guys came back out, executed, made plays, were poised against the pressure they put on us and were able to finish plays.”  
Four of LSU’s five starters reached double figures. LSU sophomore forward Jordan Mickey tallied 14, while Hornsby chipped in 13 to go along with the high-scoring performances from Martin and Patterson. 
Auburn junior forward Cinmeon Bowers banged bodies down low and did all he could for Auburn. But his 16 points and six boards weren’t enough to erase the shooting struggles of his teammates, who missed 26 of their 39
attempts. 
However, Bowers was the recipient of a Mickey block in the second half that put the All-SEC forward in rare territory. With three blocks against Auburn, Mickey became the second player in LSU history to record 100 swats in
back-to-back seasons. 
But Mickey’s historic night was overshadowed by his team’s big performance. LSU’s 23-point win was its largest margin of victory in SEC play and second-largest of the season. 
More importantly, the win also kept LSU within reach of a top-four seed for this season’s SEC Tournament. 
If Ole Miss (19-8, 10-4 SEC), which is tied for third place, falls to Georgia tonight , then Saturday’s contest between the Rebels and LSU would give the victor the tiebreaker and an easier path toward securing a top-four seed and first-round bye. 
But Jones isn’t thinking about that yet — he’s just happy his team came away with a win. 
“We are very fortunate to come in and play the way we did,” Jones said. “We needed to get a victory here at Auburn.”  
You can reach David Gray on Twitter @dgray_TDR.