BATON ROUGE, La. – The No. 1 ranked Auburn Tigers (19-1) took their undefeated SEC record down to Baton Rouge for another SEC victory over the LSU Tigers (12-8) Wednesday night. They defeated Louisiana State in what is now a nation-leading 12th Quad 1 victory, 87-74.
As the best team in the country, Auburn expects to get every team in the nation’s best shot, and that is exactly what LSU gave the Tigers early. Despite dominating the glass, including one possession with six offensive rebounds, the shots would not fall for the nation’s best Tigers as they started 0-9 from the field. LSU on the other hand knocked home a couple of early shots and took an early 6-0 advantage. Auburn, however, was not fazed. The two teams battled back and forth and Auburn tied it up at 16 apiece with the help of a couple of Miles Kelly triples. After a flagrant foul on LSU’s Cam Carter, the Auburn Tigers found their rhythm and ended the half on a 25-13 scoring run. Auburn went into the break with a 41-29 lead.
Johni Broome was not as efficient as Auburn would have liked in the first half, but it was not a problem. The Auburn defense fueled the Tigers' offense with 15 forced turnovers leading to 15 Auburn points. Chad Baker-Mazara was particularly active on the defensive end, having 3 steals for Auburn. He and Miles Kelly were also offensive sparkplugs for the Auburn offense, with Kelly leading the team with 10 points and Baker-Mazara being right behind him with nine.
The second half started similar to the first, with the LSU Tigers giving Auburn everything they could take. Every time it looked like Auburn would pull away, an LSU run would immediately erase that advantage. Many of the runs were spearheaded by Cam Carter and Jordan Sears. Sears in particular went on a personal 7-0 run to cut the lead to 5 with about 13 minutes to play. The rest of the game was categorized by the way many Auburn road games have been, a lot closer than Auburn would have hoped. Both teams battled back and forth and a lot of fouls were called on both sides. Johni Broome however, found his spots in the second frame and was the perfect centerpiece to keep Auburn in the driver's seat. Broome had 20 in the second half on 7-9 shooting. With the effort of Broome, Auburn was able to fend off LSU and come away with the victory, 87-74.
For LSU, the work of Cam Carter kept them in the game. Carter was almost unstoppable, scoring 24 points on 7-9 from the field including a perfect 2-2 from beyond. Dji Bailey and Jordan Sears were the other main offensive outputs scoring 13 and 11 points respectively. Turnovers and lackluster offensive rebounding were the only blotches on what was a respectable effort from the Bayou Tigers. LSU had 20 turnovers on the night and were outshot by Auburn by almost 30 attempts.
For the nation's best, it was once again the big man from Plant City, Florida. Johni Broome had his way in the second half leading to his 72nd career double-double, having 26 points and grabbing 16 boards. Three other Tigers found themselves in double digits at the final buzzer as well. Miles Kelly had 13 points and Chad-Baker Mazara had 11 in support of Broome. Freshman Tahaad Pettiford led the bench unit and added 10 points himself. Auburn’s defense forced LSU into tough shots and situations all night, causing havoc and leading to easy buckets. Auburn remains undefeated in conference play with the win and extends its win streak to 12 games.
Next up for AP No. 1 Auburn is another test in Oxford, Mississippi as they take on 23rd-ranked Ole Miss on Saturday afternoon. The game begins at 1 p.m. CST and will be streamed live on ESPN. You can also listen to the matchup live on the Auburn Sports Network.
