Auburn comes up just short at LSU
Terry Martin scored 17 of his season-high 23 points in the second half and No. 13 LSU held off Auburn 65-63 on Saturday.
Martin, making his first start of the season, hit five 3-pointers to match his season high. After his free throw gave the Tigers a two-point lead with 14 seconds to go, Auburn's Kelvin Lewis missed a 3-pointer with 3 seconds left.
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Tasmin Mitchell scored 12 points and Glen Davis added 11 for LSU (12-4, 1-1 Southeastern Conference). Rasheem Barrett led Auburn (11-7, 1-2) with 15 points. Quan Prowell added 12 and Josh Dollard had 11.
Auburn took advantage of 10 LSU turnovers to take a 32-28 halftime lead.
After Lewis hit three foul shots for to tie the score at 47, Davis made a basket with 7:41 remaining to give LSU the lead for good. A field goal by Martin and a foul shot by Mitchell pushed LSU's advantage to five.
Auburn reduced its deficit to one point twice in the final 3 1/2 minutes. After a basket by Barrett left Auburn behind 57-56, field goals by Davis and Dameon Mason again gave LSU a five-point lead.
A 3-pointer by Barrett left Auburn behind 64-63 with 24 seconds remaining. Martin hit one of two foul shots and Mason grabbed the rebound of Lewis' missed 3-pointer.
In the first half, Auburn scored 14 points off LSU turnovers and made 10 of 11 free throws.
After falling behind 7-0 in the first 90 seconds, LSU tied the score with 12:22 remaining before halftime on a field goal by Davis.
Mitchell replaced Davis, who had a cut, and made a foul shot to complete a three-point play and give LSU its only first-half lead at 17-16.
LSU then scored just three points in the next nine minutes. Two free throws by Prowell completed a 14-2 run and gave Auburn a 30-19 advantage.
Tack Minor, Martin and Garrett Temple hit 3-pointers to help LSU reduce its deficit to four at the break.
It took LSU less than three minutes to tie the score in the second half. A 3-pointer by Martin made it 36-all with 17:35 left. A minute later, another 3-pointer by Martin put LSU on top 39-38.
The teams exchanged the lead three times over the next five minutes. A 3-pointer by Mitchell gave LSU a 46-44 lead with 11:13 to play. Neither club scored for almost three minutes until Davis ended the drought with a foul shot at 8:29.