By RON HIGGINS, Journal Sports
BATON ROUGE – No. 13 LSU had to grind and claw and practically crawl across the finish line Thursday night.
Despite a fourth quarter in which the Tigers had 8 turnovers and missed 8 shots in 24 possessions, they exhaled deeply when the game-ending horn proclaimed a 71-66 victory over Auburn.
LSU’s Angel Reese’s 25 points and 20 rebounds offset a career-high 28 points by Auburn’s Honesty Scott Grayson.
The victory gave LSU (23-4 overall, 10-3 SEC) revenge for its Jan. 14 67-62 loss at Auburn.
“It was tough, it was personal because we lost the first time to them,” Reese said. “I did a better job of keeping the team together than I did the last time we played them. I just kept attacking the basket and getting as many rebounds as I could. We just had to stay poised.”
LSU recorded its fifth consecutive win since its two-game losing streak to No. 1 South Carolina and unranked Mississippi State. But Auburn (16-10, 5-8 SEC) pushed the home team Tigers all the way to the end.
“We tried really hard to give away the game in the last four minutes, and it starts with me,” LSU head coach Kim Mulkey said. “I didn’t do a very good job as a head coach the last four minutes.”
LSU had as many turnovers – 23 – as it did made free throws.
Both teams drew an offensive line of demarcation from the opening tip and rarely wandered away from it.
Eighteen of LSU’s 23 made field goals were layups. Mulkey’s squad attempted just 5 3-pointers and made 2, buzzer-beating treys by Hailey Van Lith and Flau’jae Johnson to close the first and second quarters.
Nineteen of Auburn’s 24 made field goals were 12 mid-range jumpers and 7 3-pointers.
Scott-Grayson, who spent the 2018-19 season playing as a true freshman for Mulkey when she coached Baylor, swished a career-best five 3-pointers.
LSU led 19-17 at the end of the first quarter in which both teams had 8-0 runs. Few baskets came easy. Defense from both teams was smothering and physical.
Reese twice got thrown to the floor by Aubun’s hefty 6-4 freshman center Savannah Scott.
Offensive game plans quickly emerged. Six of Auburn’s seven first-quarter field goals were mid-range jumper or 3-pointers. Six of LSU’s eight first-quarter baskets were layups.
The game grew even more physical in the second quarter.
But LSU evened up things more when feisty reserve point guard Last Tear-Poa and 6-6 reserve freshman center Aalyah Del Rosario were on the floor together for the final 3:05 of the period.
That’s when LSU went on a 12-0 run to close the half with a 40-30 lead capped by Johnson’s 3-pointer in front of the Auburn bench just before the game clock clicked to zero.
Del Rosario scored 6 points, grabbed a rebound and blocked one shot in the closing burst. Tear-Poa scored a basket, had a steal and was the figurehead of an LSU defense that forced Auburn to miss its final four shots of the half.
The officiating crew of Roy Gulbeyan, Felicia Grinter and Cameron Inouye spent most of the first half focused on calling 3-second lane violations while turning a blind eye to the street fights under the goal on both ends of the floor.
In the second half, the officials decided they were going to get control of the game and began whistling fouls for the plays they swallowed their whistles on in the first half.
LSU (6 of 8) and Auburn (3-3) made 9 of 11 free throws in the first half combined. In the second half, it jumped to a combined 25 of 32 free throws (LSU 17 of 19, Auburn 8 of 13).
LSU saw a 12-point lead shrink to 48-46 with 4:13 left before 6-0 LSU rally in the last 2:27 gave the home team a 58-49 lead exiting the third quarter.
“It’s hard to believe that team (Auburn) has won only five (SEC) games,” Mulkey said. “I don’t know if Auburn plays every team in the league the way they played us.
“We were working hard out there. We were trying our best. They just get after us.”
LSU has another revenge game on the docket next. It travels to Tennessee for an 11 a.m. CT game on Sunday. The Vols beat the Tigers in last season’s SEC tournament, the second and last loss for LSU as it went on to win six straight NCAA tourney games and the national championship.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com