After a hard-fought first half ended in a 33-33 tie, Auburn (13-9, 4-7
SEC) seized control midway through the second period mounting a 31-6 run
which spelled certain doom on Brady's squad.
The SEC leaders in defense and field-goal defense, the Tigers (17-5, 7-4 SEC)
allowed Auburn to shoot 55.6-percnt from the floor, 65.4-percent in the second
half.
"There are several things going through my mind," said LSU Coach John Brady.
"But the biggest thing that we did not do what we have been doing and what we
are leading the league in -- defensive field goal percentage. We are also second
or third in rebounding the ball and we showed neither of those (Wednesday). That
team (Auburn) scored on us when they wanted to, how they wanted to, over us,
through us and beat us on the boards. The 68 points that we scored is enough for
us but they just beat us every way possible."
Jaime Lloreda, who injured his right ankle last weekend at Florida, was
hobbled by injury and was clearly not himself, despite finsihing with 12 points
and seven rebounds. Tack Minor logged a career high with 15 points. Brandon Bass
finished with 13 points while Darnell Lazare enjoyed a career night with 10
points and six rebounds.
Ian Young shot 6-of-10 from the floor and led Auburn with 20 points. Marco Killingsworth, who was 9-of-15 from the floor including two clutch three
pointers, finished with 20. Branodn Robinson chipped in 17 points in the winning
effort.
Along with Lloreda, starting swingman Regis Koundjia missed the game with a
strained MCL.
"You know we shot 32 percent from the floor at Alabama and won because we
rebounded and defended," Brady said. "We did not do either of those. I think
there are some reasons why. We play really well for a nice stretch of games and
then we practice two days without Jaime and without Regis and we are trying to
practice with nine guys and it just cut our continuity. It is not an excuse, it
is just unfortunate that our team, with all the things that built up tonight,
with the crowd and those sort of things I am just disappointed that we played
like this as soon as we get a full house. It is unfortunate, but it happens. We
just did not have good enough practices to sustain what we needed to
sustain."
The Tigers return to action opening a two-game road swing at Vanderbilt in
Nashville at 5 p.m. Saturday afternoon in a game televised on SEC-TV/Fox Sports
Net. They then head to SEC leading Mississippi State next Wednesday.