The LSU basketball team cannot buy a break.
With a five-game Southeastern Conference winning streak in hand and the largest crowd of the season in attendance at the PMAC, Auburn (13-9, 4-7 SEC) took the wind out of the 24th-ranked Tigers’ sails, defeating LSU (17-5, 7-4 SEC) 80-68 before 11,024 people.
And it seemed like it happened in a blur.
LSU led 45-39 with 13:43 remaining before Auburn went on a 28-2 run over the next nine minutes to put the game away.
Auburn shot 65.4 percent from the field and made 5-of-7 3-point shots in the second half to fuel the run.
LSU was without the services of starting guard Regis Koundjia, who sat out with an injured knee, and had a very limited Jaime Lloreda, who had a hurt right ankle and a banged up left foot.
LSU coach John Brady said the Tigers’ inability to make stops on defense and rebound the ball — both usually LSU strengths — decided the game.
“The biggest thing that we did not do that we had been doing and that we’re leading the league in is defensive field-goal percentage and second or third in rebounding the ball,” Brady said. “We showed neither of those tonight. That team scored on us when they wanted to, how they wanted to, over us, through us and [they] beat us on the board. And we’ve out-rebounded everybody in this stretch here we’ve been playing well.”
Brady said the Tigers were simply dominated by Auburn.
“They just beat us every way possible,” Brady said. “Physically they beat us around the goal … [and they shot] 65 percent in the second half. I don’t know if anybody can win that many games giving up that sort of field-goal percentage stat.”
Before Auburn’s run, it looked as if LSU might be creating some distance between it and the orange-and-blue Tigers.
LSU was up by six points, and it appeared the inside-outside game was coming around, with a Tack Minor 3-pointer and a Brandon Bass layup providing the cushion.
But at that point Auburn took over and never looked back. Six different players scored during the run, with Brandon Robinson providing a highlight reel dunk with 7:01 remaining.
“It went by real fast,” said freshman forward Darnell Lazare, who was a bright spot for the Tigers, scoring 10 points. “We were able to run the offense and we had some open looks, but the shots weren’t falling. Defensively, we didn’t execute as good as we could have and they made some tough shots. They made a lot of 3s and got some things under the basket and it was just a rough night for us all around tonight.”
Sophomore guard Darrel Mitchell, who was 13-of-19 from the 3-point line in the Tigers’ three previous games, struggled throughout the night. He shot 2-of-12 from the field, with both makes being 3-pointers and scored eight points in 40 minutes of play.
He said the loss of 6-foot-9 Koundjia and a hobbled Lloreda affected the team, especially with Lloreda’s inside presence of defense largely missing. Neither was able to practice going into Wednesday’s game.
“We were already short on players, and losing them just makes our practice harder,” Mitchell said. “Jaime can’t move as well as he could at 100 percent and that hurt a lot. [Losing] Regis’ athletic ability hurt. But we could have stepped up and played tougher and we didn’t.”
The first half started out slowly, as Auburn jumped out to a 14-8 lead at the 13:31mark.
LSU inched closer until it took a 19-18 lead with 11:12 remaining.
The teams then largely traded baskets for the rest of the half, with the score tied at 33 at halftime.
Auburn had three players score more than 17 points, with reserve guard Ian Young leading the way with 21 points. Eighteen of them came in the second half. Forward Marco Killingsworth scored 20 points on 9-of-15 shooting, and back-up forward Robinson threw in 17 points.
For LSU, guard Tack Minor led the way with 15 points, many of them coming in garbage time during the second half.
Brady said he is disappointed the team could not perform for the largest crowd of the season.
“I’m as disappointed as they are,” Brady said of the fans. “And I know our team is. But we’ve got to play in three more days. And hopefully, our fans will stay with us.”