Defensive clinic leads Auburn over LSU

Baton Rouge | Auburn squeezed most of the life out of LSU's offense in the first half.

Then Auburn let LSU breathe a little before fully squeezing the life out of the Bayou Bengals.

Auburn held LSU to 29 percent shooting from the floor en route to a 67-49 win from the Maravich Center.

It's the lowest field goal percentage Auburn has held an SEC team to since 2011.

"Great scout," said guard Wendell Green. "We're executing and playing together. All five guys were locked in on defense, and it showed."

49 points are the fewest amount of points Auburn has allowed in an SEC game since the 49-37 win over Alabama in 2013.

There was some life shown from LSU to start the second half as it put up 12 points in the first five minutes of the frame, but after that point Auburn allowed the Bayou Bengals to score only 14 points in the final 15 minutes.

Bruce Pearl's guys just needed a break.

"Wendell and Zep, Al, Jaylin and Johni, did not come out the start of the second half and guard them," Pearl said. "They were fatigued. They played a lot of minutes in the first half. So I called a timeout to give us two timeouts. I wanted those guys to towel down, I wanted them rested and I wanted this thing over. We came out, we executed and we guarded and we were able to maintain or lead and build on it."

Auburn was switching everything to prevent KJ Williams and LSU's guards from beating them on the perimeter.

KJ Williams still got his as he put up 16 points but eventually wore down.

"We switched really, really early because KJ’s so good on the perimeter," Pearl said. "We didn’t want to give him any free ones. And our big guys, Dylan Cardwell and Johni Broome can move their feet and guard guards. So that switching defense really, really bothered a lot of what LSU did."

Per Synergy, LSU averages .885 points per possession on the season, but the Bayou Bengals were only able to muster up .778 points per possession against Auburn.