LSU Dismantles Auburn, 104-80

Photo By: LSU/SEC

2/20/2021
By: Terrill J. Weil
Da Boot Sports!


BATON ROUGE, LA: LSU would extend their winning streak to three as they would take down Auburn 104-80 in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on Saturday afternoon. The Tigers played a mean, physical style of basketball for the full 40 minutes frustrating Auburn all game long as they had no answer on either end of the floor. With three straight impressive wins in a row, it looks like Will Wade's group may be peaking at the right time.


Auburn would control the opening tip and score quickly as Allen Flanigan would hit a three pointer thirty seconds in. Then LSU would turn the ball over on the in-bounds pass as Auburn would press. That would lead to another Auburn basket putting them up 5-0 less then a minute into the ball game.
With 17:44 to go, LSU would find themselves trailing 10-5, before Javonte Smart would heat up with back to back three point baskets that would start a 13-0 run over the next two minutes, 18-10, LSU would lead with 14:56 left on the clock.
Aundre Hyatt would bank in a layup at the 12:21 mark to give LSU their largest lead of the contest at 26-14. The Tigers would then go on to out score Auburn 5-2 over the next three minutes to increase their lead so far to 15 points, 31-16 with 9:07 to go.
LSU would continue to play a strong first half on both ends of the court as defensively they kept Auburn frustrated and out of sink. On offense the Tigers had great ball movement and took great shots making several of them, as they would continue adding to their lead. A Javonte Smart three pointer at the 4:24 mark would put the Tigers up by 22 points, 45-23...
Auburn wouldn't quit as they would battle back, out scoring LSU 9-5 over the final four minutes of the first half to cut LSU's lead to 16 points at the break. 50-34.....
LSU would shoot 49% from the floor in the first half, ... 6-12 from behind the three point arc for 50%. ... and 80% from the free throw line going 4-5. The big stat of the first 20 minutes was rebounding, as LSU would out-rebound Auburn 26-18. Cam Thomas would lead the team at the half with 16 points. Smart would add 11 points, while Trendon Watford would score ten.


Darius Days would help start the second half with a bang as he would hit back to back three pointers to extend LSU's lead to 56-36 at the 18:28 mark.
Days would then hit his third three point shot of the half putting LSU up by 21 points, 64-43 with
16:26 left.
Over the next two minutes Auburn would be able to trim six points off of the LSU lead, but the Tigers were still playing at a high level and would maintain their double digit advantage. After a slight two minute slump, LSU would shift things back in gear and go on a 9-2 run, to build a 77-54 lead with 12:28 still to go in the ballgame.
LSU would continue to play aggressively on offense as Auburn could find no answer for the Tigers attack all day. Leading 96-70 with 4:10 left in the game, Will Wade would begin to take his starters off of the floor, letting the bench finish this one off. It was a joy to watch Jalen Cook, Josh LeBlanc, Eric Gaines, Mwani Wilkinson, and Josh Gray play as a unit. Even Parker Edwards and Brandon Egemo got a couple of minutes.
LSU would go on and impressively beat Auburn 104-80.


Several Tigers had a great game... Cam Thomas finished with 27 points, ... Trendon Watford finished the game with a double-double, 18 points with 11 rebounds, ... Javonte Smart added 16 points, ... Darius Days had a solid performance scoring 17 points, .... Josh LeBlanc would end up with a double-double, scoring 12 points, and grabbing 10 rebounds.....
LSU would shoot 39-73 from the floor for 53%, along with going 11-22 from three point land for 50%.. The Tigers dominated the boards as they out-rebounded Auburn, 47-39... This also marks the first time LSU has scored 100 points or more in a game since they defeated Northwestern State 109-59 on December 8th, 2019 and the first time in a SEC contest since March 2nd, 1994 in a home overtime loss to Arkansas, 108-105...
With the win LSU is now 14-6 overall and 9-4 in the SEC.


Will Wade Post Game Comments:

“Good win. I know we guarded well. I know they scored a lot of points, but the game was high possession. We held them under 40 field goal percentage, 37%. We did a nice job on the back boards. We had a lot of contributions. Obviously, our big four played great. Aundre Hyatt did a tremendous job. We were jamming (Sharife) Cooper. Spent a lot of energy jamming him. Spent a lot of energy defensively to jam him, slow their transition game down. Especially in the first half. (Josh) LeBlanc did a nice job. (Eric) Gaines came in and did a nice job. Mwani (Wilkinson) made that play at the rim on the block. He did some really good things. Overall, I thought it was a good team win. I thought it was good to get (Eric) Cook and (Josh) Gray in there as well and Brandon (Egemo) and Parker (Edwards) who work really hard in practice. Very pleased. I thought we prepared well, and I thought it was a good solid win.”


Up next the Tigers will travel to Athens to play the Georgia Bulldogs on Tuesday, Feb. 23rd at 6:00pm.
The game will be carried on the SEC Network.

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