Joey Papania
LSUsports.net
BATON ROUGE — The LSU Tiger basketball team knocked off its third top 15 team this season with an 83-68 upset win over the Auburn Tigers Wednesday night at the PMAC.
The LSU Tigers (18-4, 5-4) were led by junior Brian Beshara and senior Jabari Smith who combined for more than half of the Tigers points. The Auburn Tigers (19-4, 7-3) were led by senior point guard Doc Robinson and sophomore Mack McGadney. Robinson hit for 17 points shooting 5-of-9 from behind the arc, and McGadney added 19 off the bench.
Both teams traded opening buckets before LSU opened up a 13-0 run that gave them an 11-point lead with 13:19 left in the first 20 minutes of play.
“Our team continued to shoot the ball well from the floor,” said head coach John Brady. “We got the ball at the critical times where we needed to get it. I thought our team played hard all game.”
With 4:06 left in the first half, Lamont Roland stole an errant pass from Doc Robinson and finished strong with a two-handed dunk igniting the Assembly Center crowd of 14,486. A 12- footer by Beshara would cap an 8-to-1 run and LSU would take a 34-22 lead with them to the locker room.
Auburn was held to just 9-of-34 shooting from the field, and hit only 1-of-11 from three-point range in the first half. LSU countered shooting over 57 percent from the field in the first half which included the sharp shooting of Torris Bright. The freshman hit 3-of-4 from the field and 2-of-3 from three point range.
“I just thought LSU really physically whipped us early,” said Auburn head coach Cliff Ellis. “I thought that their inside people took it right at us early. I thought we fought well in the second half, but we lost this game in the first half with their physical play.”
The second half did not start well for LSU. Both Smith and Lamont Roland would pick up their third fouls with just over a minute gone in the half. But the momentum would quickly swing back in favor of the Bengal Tigers. Auburn All-American Chris Porter committed his fourth foul at the 18:20 mark. Jabari Smith would hit two free-throws, and on the ensuing in-bounds, the Tiger press forced an Auburn turnover and a timeout.
After LSU extended their lead to 18 points with 14:50 left, Auburn head coach Cliff Ellis was forced to put Porter back into the game. LSU would continue shooting the ball well hitting 7-of-9 in the first eight minutes of the second half, and with 10:50 left, Porter would pick up his fifth foul.
With the absence of Porter, Smith went to work inside scoring 10 of his 18 points in the second half. Sophomore Stromile Swift added his seventh double-double this year with 13 points and 14 boards.
“We have two of the best inside guys in the country, and it doesnt matter who the other team has. We are going to work it down low to them,” said Beshara. “Porter got into some foul trouble, and that is his game, to be real aggressive.”
Beshara lightened the scoring load for the Tiger frontcourt with his game-high 24 points. The junior was an impressive 11-of-16 from the free-throw line and was the key to the Tigers win down the stretch. As a team, LSU shot 24-of-33 from the charity stripe.
Tonights game against Auburn marked the third sell-out crowd this season for head coach John Bradys Tigers.
“Theyve got a good crowd. They wont let them get down, and youve certainly got to give credit to the home court advantage,” said Ellis. “Its definitely here at LSU.”
The Tigers will next host the 11th ranked Kentucky Wildcats on Sunday at a sold-out PMAC with a noon tip-off.