LSU Basketball: Tigers fall to Auburn, 81-77

LSU basketball dropped its second straight game as coach Johnny Jones’ group simply didn’t have an answer for KT Harrell, Antoine Mason and Cinmeon Bowers, who had their way for the entire night against LSU.

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Harrell had a game-high 28 points and Mason followed with a 24-point performance to lead Auburn past the the LSU Tigers (16-6, 5-4 Southeastern Conference) 81-77 inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center, snapping its four-game losing streak. With the win, Auburn is now 1-7 on the road this season and 3-6 in the SEC. LSU is now tied with Georgia, Tennessee, and Florida in conference play.

Bowers finished the night with 16 points and 10 rebounds, but picked up his fourth foul with 6:08 left, which made coach Bruce Pearl come out of his suit jacket. Minutes later, Pearl put his jacket back on and seemed to cool off. Bowers and Jordan Mickey were going at it all night long. Mickey amassed his 13^th double-double of the season with a 23-point and 12-rebound performance.

Mickey’s teammate Jarell Martin was caught exchanging words with Bowers and both were called for a technical foul early on.

There was no need for Pearl to worry or panic with both Harrell and Mason on the court.

Mason scored seven straight points to help Auburn (11-11, 3-6 SEC) grab a 72-67 lead. Josh Gray’s two free throws followed by Tim Quarterman’s layup narrowed the physical Tigers’ lead to 72-71. Quarterman got fouled and knocked down both foul shots to put his team ahead 73-72. The lead lasted for a second as Mason found Bowers on the other end for the easy put in.

Down by three with 36 seconds left, coach Jones had set up a play for guard Keith Hornsby to come off a double screen for the potential tying 3-pointer, but the basketball hit the front of the rim. It was the same play that helped the purple and gold go into overtime on January 8th in their 74-67 loss to Missouri. Martin was there for the put-back off of Hornsby’s miss.

Gray had a chance to tie the game, but went 1-for-2 from the charity stripe. Gray went 5-for-10 for the night, finishing with seven points. On Gray’s last trip to the line, he made the first one and missed the second intentionally in hopes of one of his teammates to hit the glass, but Mason was there to grab the loose rebound. He was fouled by Quarterman, who fouled out with 17 points.

Mason sealed the game in the final seconds with his two free throws. Mason was 9-of-12 for the game. Pearl’s team held the lead for over 25 minutes.

Pearl came into the game 5-3 all-time against the Tigers and was looking for his team to get a key road win against a LSU team that had envisioned a better first-half shooting performance, something that didn’t happen in their 73-67 loss to Mississippi State.

The Tigers struggled in the first half against Auburn’s zone defense and at one point in the first half, LSU was 0-for-6 from the field until Quarterman’s 3-pointer ended the scoring slump and sliced its deficit to 26-22. Following back-to-back scores from the Tigers’ second leading scorer Martin, LSU got within one (34-33) with 3:43 remaining before intermission.

Martin finished with 14 points and 16 rebounds.

Martin would get another shot to fall with 1:03 left, then Quarterman followed with a score of his own. The Tigers went into the locker room down 41-39. Quarterman and Martin both had 10 points to lead LSU. Jordan Mickey had seven points and six rebounds.

The Tigers shot 45.7 percent from the field in the first half, better than their 29 percent shooting effort against the Bulldogs, who snapped their three-game winning streak. LSU held a 25-21 rebounding advantage over the blue and orange crew.

Auburn’s double-double machine Bowers had two shot attempts to fall to push the Tigers’ lead back up to 38-33. Bowers had eight points and six rebounds heading into the locker room, but his teammates Harrell and Mason were the sole reason for Auburn’s hot shooting from beyond the arc. Harrell went 3-of-5 from deep as part of his 13-point first-half performance. Antoine Mason had 11 and went 3-of-4 from three.

As a team, Auburn shot 45 percent from long range for the game on 9-of-20. LSU was only 4-of-17 from beyond the arc for 23.5 percent.

Auburn was down 19-16 at the 12:50 mark, then went on a 10-0 run to take the lead for good. Tigers had their biggest lead at 31-23 following a stick-back from Jordon Granger, who grabbed five rebounds.

LSU continues its three-game homestand this Saturday against Alabama. Tip is set for 5:00 pm CT.