THE STORY
With 12:55 to play in the game Tuesday night, LSU was shooting 60 percent from the floor.
The Tigers trailed Auburn by seven.
The hot shooting was unlikely to continue. It didn’t. LSU’s turnovers did, and Auburn separated for an 88-74 win on The Plains to keep its NCAA Tournament hopes alive and send LSU to a 3-14 league mark with one to play.
Auburn prides itself on creating havoc defensively. They did that all night to the visiting Tigers who turned the ball over 16 times. Those led to 13 Auburn points.
More importantly, the turnovers led to a 13-shot disparity in field goal attempts between the teams that included nine more three-point attempts by Auburn.
That negated LSU really strong shooting night. Most of the time, 55 percent from the floor, 47 percent from three-point range and 73 percent from the charity stripe will do. Not when you give the ball away at the clip LSU did.
The purple and gold hung tough early. The first half featured 14 lead changes and actually ended on Auburn’s biggest lead before halftime, seven. In the second half, LSU couldn’t keep up.
The lead swelled to 10 two minutes into the second half and reached as many as 19 with 3:41 to play.
Auburn hasn’t played well of late, but those Tigers are in a different class than LSU. Most teams in the league are.
One more regular season game awaits LSU. That’s the home finale against Texas A&M on Saturday evening in the Maravich Center.
THE STATS
Field Goals: LSU 24-for-44 (55%); Auburn 31-for-57 (55%)
3 Pt: LSU 7-for-15 (47%); Auburn 10-for-24 (42%)
FT: LSU 19-for-26 (73%); Auburn 16-for-22 (73%)
Turnovers: 16-9 in Auburn’s advantage
Tahaad Pettiford: 10-for-16 FG, 4-for-7 3 PT, 3-for-4 FT, 27 pts, 6 ast
Mike Nwoko: 4-for-6 FG, 11-for-13 FT, 19 pts
LSU was outscored by 7 in both halves.
Paints points (34) and Rebounds (27) were dead even.
