Auburn gets big win over La-Monroe

Auburn forced 29 turnovers and had a school record 21 steals in a 78-55 win over Louisiana-Monroe Saturday in Beard-Eaves-Memorial Coliseum. Korvotney Barber led the Tigers with 18 points and six rebounds in 28 minutes while going 8-of-11 from the field.

Tay Waller added 15 points on 3-of-6 three-point shooting, DeWayne Reed had 14 points and four assists and Lucas Hargrove 11 points, six rebounds and four steals. Quantez Robertson totaled seven assists, five rebounds, five steals and three points.

Auburn (4-4) outscored the Warhawks 27-11 in points off turnovers and limited them to 36 percent (16-of-44) shooting from the field and 38 percent (8-of-21) from 3-point range. The victory broke a three-game Tiger losing streak to Dayton, Northern Iowa and No. 14 Xavier.

"It's nice to win," said Auburn head coach Jeff Lebo. "Defensively, we were pretty good tonight with forcing 29 turnovers. Everybody got a chance to play a little bit. They shot the ball well. They shot well from the foul line, which has cost us in a couple of our games. With a break of 10 days right now, we will spend some time working on our shooting. I thought that we were pretty active today defensively."

Auburn shot 48 percent (30-of-62) from the field, 29 percent (6-of-21) from the foul line and 46 percent (12-of-26) from the foul line.

After Louisiana-Monroe (2-4) scored 10 straight points to cut Auburn*s lead to 58-48 with 8:54 remaining, Auburn used a 10-0 run of its own to make a 61-50 game into a 71-50 lead on a Brendon Knox dunk with 3:37 to play.

The Tigers and Warhawks were tied at 19 10 minutes into the game, but the Tigers exploded on a 20-4 run to take a 39-23 lead with 2:44 left before settling for a 40-26 halftime lead.

"Today's game was all about execution," said Reed. "We wanted to get used to running our plays and pressure. Today's game was all about execution and defense."

Malcolm Thomas led Louisiana-Monroe with 18 points, all scored in the first half, and Jarvis Hill, a former Auburn signee, added 17 points and eight rebounds. Auburn outscored Louisiana-Monroe 28-2 off the bench and 38-8 in the paint.

Auburn now takes a 10-day break for final exams before playing host to Div. II Tuskegee on Dec. 17 at 6 pm Central.