LSU no longer has an effective inside presence on the team, and it showed Saturday against Auburn.
In its second game officially without forward Jaime Lloreda, LSU (18-8, 8-8 Southeastern Conference) was repeatedly beaten inside by Auburn (14-13, 5-11 SEC) and lost 78-66 at the Beard-Eaves Coliseum in Auburn, Ala.
Wednesday, four LSU freshmen and a sophomore were able to bridle Ole Miss’ inside game and held the SEC’s then second-leading scorer, Justin Reed, to six points. The last 13 minutes of the game were mainly manned by four members of LSU’s freshmen class, and sophomore Darrel Mitchell.
But Saturday, Auburn’s experienced group of players outclassed the Tigers as junior forward Brandon Robinson scored a career-high 29 points and pulled down 10 rebounds.
“I thought it was the difference in the game that we could not stop Brandon Robinson,” said LSU coach John Brady. “We could not stop Kyle Davis from getting rebounds on the low blocks. They are an experienced team, and we are young, so that could have been all the difference.”
The senior center Davis, who was honored before the game for senior celebrations, had 16 rebounds and nine points to compliment Robinson’s inside dominance. He also made his first career 3-pointer in the waning moments of his final regular season game.
All news was not bad for LSU, however, as Mississippi State was able to beat Alabama in overtime to secure second place in the SEC West for the Tigers. By virtue of finishing second in the west, LSU will receive a bye in the first round of the SEC Tournament next Thursday and will face the winner of Arkansas and South Carolina Friday at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta.
Despite its inside dominance, Auburn was on fire from outside in the first half. The orange-and-blue Tigers nailed 7-of-10 3-pointers in the half and shot 53.3 percent from the field. They shot 45.6 percent from the field for the game.
LSU was able to keep it close in the first half and trailed 42-39 at halftime.
It was in the second half that Auburn displayed its inside dominance as the frontline scored 32 of the 36 points. Robinson scored 23 in the second half.
LSU was only down 59-58 with 9:43 remaining. At that point, Auburn started to pull away and led by as many as 14 points with 16 seconds remaining.
The Tigers committed 19 turnovers and shot 30 percent in the second half.
Sophomore Darrel Mitchell led LSU in scoring with 18 points on six 3-pointers.