BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team opened a 16-point first half lead and held off one rally after another by the Auburn Tigers to improve to 2-2 in Southeastern Conference play with a 75-58 victory on Saturday afternoon in the Maravich Assembly Center.
The LSU Tigers also improved to 12-5 overall while Auburn fell to 9-7 overall and 1-4 in league play.
Ronald Dupree led LSU in scoring with 25 points on 10-of-19 shooting, while Torris Bright had 16 and Brad Bridgewater added 13 including 11 in the first half. Playing with a hip pointer, Collis Temple III played 28 minutes and led LSU with 10 rebounds and six assists.
LSU was 26 of 57 from the field for 45.6 percent, while Auburn was 18 of 56 for only 32.1 percent including 4 of 17 from three-point range (23.5 percent).
Auburn was led by Adam Harrington who had 14 points on 4-of-15 shooting, along with Brandon Robinson and Kyle Davis who added 10 each.
LSU immediately went to the paint against the Auburn Tigers, as Bridgewater scored the game’s first seven points as LSU jumped out to a 7-0 lead with 16:30 remaining in the first half. The 6-8, 250-pound junior from New Roads, La., surpassed his season average of 6.4 ppg. after scoring just 12 points in the three previous SEC matchups this season.
Using only its five starters over the first seven minutes, LSU jumped out to a 10-point lead, 14-4, before Thomas Davis, Charlie Thompson and Antonio Hudson entered in relief. With three subs on the court, the lead was extended to 14 as Davis and Dupree added baskets in the lane before the media timeout at 10:56.
Defensively, LSU forced nine Auburn turnovers in the first nine minutes of play — including five on steals — and held the Tigers to 2-of-11 shooting for 18.2 percent.
Hudson’s baseline drive with just under 10 minutes to play led to a dunk and a 20-4 lead, as the LSU Tigers improved to 9-of-19 from the field to start the game.
Auburn went to a full-court press and a zone defense to force the turnover-prone Tigers into a transition game. The result was a 7-0 run that cut the lead to 20-11 with 7:22 to play. Dupree broke the run by making 1-of-2 free throws, as LSU led 21-11 at the 7:22 media timeout.
However, Auburn continued to pressure the Tigers and scores the next six points to cut the 16-point lead to four, 21-17, with 5:31 remaining in the half.
Bright made only his second shot in seven attempts — a three pointer — to extend the lead to seven before Dupree converted a three-point play on a flying dunk over Auburn’s Kyle Davis. Auburn matched the three on the other end, however, Bridgewater bounced in a short jumper for a 29-20 lead with 3:14 left in the half.
LSU put together five straight points to extend the lead to 34-20, but Auburn went on a 8-2 run over the final two minutes to cut the lead to 36-28 at the half.
Both LSU and Auburn came out in a trapping man-to-man defense that kept each team without a field goal for the first 2:30 of the half.
Led by Dupree’s six second-half points in four minutes of play, LSU opened a 12-point lead, 42-30, before Davis hit a second-chance layup to cut the lead to 10 going into the 15:42 media timeout.
Auburn was able to get the lead down to six, 46-40, but the LSU Tigers pushed it back to 10 on a terrific ball fake by Davis for a layup at the 11:19 mark.
Temple’s jumper from 17 feet in the key gave LSU a nine-point lead with 7:21 remaining in the game before Bright made two free throws to put the lead back in double digits, 57-46, with just under six minutes to play.
With 4:15 left, Bright hit two free throws for a 13-point lead, 62-49, but fouled on the other end to give the points back. However, the 6-4 guard from Slidell made up for it with a brilliant move on the offensive side as he cut through two defenders, overcame a shot to the body and made a scooping five-footer with the shot clock at zero. After converting the free throw, LSU led 65-51 with 3:42 to play.
LSU returns to action on Wednesday night at Ole Miss at 7 in Oxford, Miss.