BATON ROUGE — The LSU men’s basketball team posted 90 points on the board for the second time in eight days and continued to show its dominance at home, defeating Auburn, 90-69, Wednesday night in a Southeastern Conference basketball game at the Pete Maravich Center.
The win puts the Tigers at 13-7 overall, 6-3 in the SEC West, one game behind Alabama who won over Tennessee and is 7-2. Mississippi State was idle and stands at 5-4. LSU plays Saturday at Arkansas (16-7, 4-6) at 2 p.m. on JP Sports. Auburn drops to 11-11 and 2-7 in the league.
All five starters were in double figures scoring for LSU with Tack Minor and Darrel Mitchell each scoring 17 points, Brandon Bass and Antonio Hudson scored 15 and Glen Davis 12. Minor had six assists, Bass was the leading rebounder with six. LSU shot 56.9 percent from the field and rebounded from a 2-of-10 night at the arc on Saturday at Tennessee to shoot 52.9 percent (9-of-17) from three-point range.
One of the key stats was that LSU turned the ball over just seven times and gave up just five points off turnovers while LSU was scoring 20 points off the 14 Auburn turnovers. The Tigers also got 14 points off the bench, paced by the nine of Darnell Lazare, compared to four for Auburn.
“I thought our team really played well,” said LSU Coach John Brady. “I thought on both ends of the floor we really played well. I was a little disappointed in our game at Tennessee after playing so well on the road at Georgia and scoring 95 points. We were really efficient offensively in Athens and went to Tennessee and didn’t play as well for some reason. We were tired or a step slow. So, I was really concerned about this game.
“It seems every time this year our team has needed to win a game at home, we’ve been able to do it. I thought our team (Wednesday) was quick to the ball, unlike last Saturday in Knoxville. I thought we rebounded the ball well. I thought we shared the ball quite well. I thought we got nice transition baskets. I thought we advanced the ball up the floor quickly and scored it. We shared the ball and I was proud of our team for the way they played. I really was.”
The game was tied twice early on at 2-2, 7-7 and 10-0 before LSU began to take control, going on a 9-0 lead on a dunk by Bass, a Hudson free throw, four free throws by Davis and a lay in by Minor. LSU had a 17-point, 51-34, halftime lead.
In the second half, the Tigers continued to limit what the Auburn team could do, quickly getting the lead to 20 in the first five minutes and eventually getting the lead to 29 points five times, the last on a layup by Xavier Whipple at the 3:19 mark (87-58).
The Tigers continued its good free throw shooting, hitting 75 percent from the line, 15-of-20, and out rebounded Auburn, 30-29.