The LSU men’s basketball team needed one more win to punch its ticket to the NCAA Tournament.
After another puzzling loss, the Tigers have to hope their regular season résumé is enough to get them into the Big Dance.
In a game that featured 53 fouls, two foul outs, one ejection and a lot of tension, No. 4 seed LSU (22-10) fell in overtime to No. 13 seed Auburn (15-19) in the quarterfinals of the Southeastern Conference Tournament, 73-70, Friday afternoon in Bridgestone Arena.
It was the first time in three years LSU dropped its postseason opener, and the loss gave LSU a 2-3 mark in SEC Tournament games under coach Johnny Jones.
“[Auburn] came out and gave a gallant effort,” Jones said. “They played through some wars, played through some storms and made some plays down the stretch, which was necessary for them to get out of here with an overtime win.”
Auburn senior guard KT Harrell forced overtime by draining a 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds left, and he started the extra session by scoring four in a row to put LSU in a 68-64 hole with 3:22 to go.
Nearly two minutes later, LSU junior guard Josh Gray hit a layup to make it a 72-70 game. But after an Auburn free throw, LSU junior guard Keith Hornsby missed two potential game-tying 3-pointers before Gray committed his fifth turnover of the game to seal LSU’s fate.
Hornsby led LSU with 24 points, his 15th consecutive game in double figures. The Virginia native kept his team ahead in the first half with 17 points on 6-of-9 shooting, and he also made three treys.
Hornsby scored 14 of his team’s first 19 points, but his teammates didn’t provide any help, going 2-for-14 from the field as LSU took a slim 28-24 lead at the break despite leading by as much as nine early on.
But after making a buzzer-beater to topple No. 21 Arkansas last week, Hornsby’s final two attempts were off the mark.
“Hornsby knocked down some shots, stretched the defense and made his free throws as well,” Jones said. “I wish we could have gotten a couple of better looks out there late. But he’ll get better, and we’ll get better.”
LSU sophomore forward Jarell Martin finished with 18 points and grabbed a game-high 16 rebounds, but the Baton Rouge native missed 10 of his 18 free throw attempts. As a team, LSU shot a woeful 25-for-44 from the charity stripe.
No player on the court was as clutch for his team as Harrell, who had only five points at halftime before erupting for 24 the rest of the way. Harrell shot 5-of-11 from the field, made four treys and went 15-for-18 from the free throw line.
At one point late in the second half, Harrell scored 14 consecutive points for Auburn, which will face No. 1 seed Kentucky in the semifinals at noon Saturday.
It was a rough shooting day for everyone else, however. Neither team shot better than 37 percent from the floor, but Auburn made up for it with an overwhelming advantage in bench scoring (23-5) and paint scoring (26-18).
“We didn’t shoot it at a high enough percentage as we would have like, and [Auburn] just kind of hung around and hung around,” Jones said.
Things got heated with 13:48 to go when LSU sophomore forward Jordan Mickey and Auburn junior forward Jordon Granger got involved in a tussle after a dead ball.
Review showed Granger punched the back of Mickey’s head before Jones and the refs stepped between the two. Granger received a Flagrant 2 foul and was ejected from the game while refs handed Mickey a technical.
Mickey eventually fouled out at the 5:12 mark and finished with one point, eight boards, one block and four turnovers. He also missed all four of his field goal attempts.
After Friday’s loss, LSU now has to hope what it did during the regular season will be enough to earn an NCAA Tournament bid. The NCAA Basketball Championship Selection Show will be aired at 5 p.m. Sunday on CBS.
“We don’t control our own destiny anymore,” Jones said. “We’re going to have to sit around and wait for the committee to decide whether or not we’ll be a participant in March Madness.”