Wednesday night’s game against Auburn was again a tale of two halves for LSU as it came up short at home, 74-67, despite jumping out to a big lead early.
The momentum LSU (7-10, 0-3) had late in its most recent game at No. 18 Ole Miss seemed to be carrying over for the first few minutes as the Tigers jumped out to a 15-2 lead in slightly more than four minutes.
The Tigers seemed to thrive on the energy of their biggest home crowd this season of 9,746 fans, but the tide quickly turned as Auburn (10-5, 1-2) would score another 26 points by halftime and hold LSU to only 17 points the remaining 15:45 of the half.
Auburn’s first-half comeback came primarily thanks to a 21-4 run the final 6:30 of the first half.
“We just weren’t able to stop them,” LSU coach John Brady said. “There wasn’t anything tricky or anything weird that [Auburn] put in.”
Despite Auburn’s late first-half run, LSU managed to hold the visitors off for much of the second half before finally losing the lead when sophomore forward Lucas Hargrove hit a 3-pointer with just less than 9:00 remaining in the game to give Auburn a 51-49 lead.
LSU continued to battle for the ensuing five minutes before Auburn eventually took final control of the game.
After LSU junior forward Quintin Thornton connected on the second of two free throws to put his team ahead 61-60, Auburn utilized a 12-0 run to put the home team away.
The disappointing loss was LSU’s sixth straight and the team’s third consecutive conference loss to open Southeastern Conference play.
“We thought we had the momentum going into the second half, and all we had to do was go out and execute and we would seal the victory,” said junior guard Marcus Thornton. “But, it was the other way around.”
Thornton led the Tigers in scoring for the third consecutive game with 27 points – including 18 in the second half.
“I thought Marcus played great,” Brady said. “It’s not about that as much as timely baskets. We struggle making timely baskets at critical moments.”
The team is still trying to remain positive despite the disappointing loss.
“We have this talent, and it’s not like we’re a team that can’t win games,” said junior guard Garrett Temple. “It’d be a little different if we lost by 20 or 30 points, but we can win these games.”
If there is a moral victory to be taken from the Tigers’ most recent loss, it may be the team’s improved rebounding.
LSU outrebounded Auburn, 29-28, to win its first rebounding battle since the team face Southern on Nov. 30.
Perhaps the young Tigers team can build on that aspect of interior improvement as they go on the road to face No. 16 Vanderbilt on Saturday.
“[Vanderbilt freshman center A.J. Ogilvy] is going to be a main point that we have to guard inside,” Temple said.
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