Auburn opened SEC play with one of its toughest tests of the season with an undefeated LSU team coming to town.
Auburn passed its test.
The orange and blue only trailed once, when LSU hit a free throw to open the game. From there Auburn went up 18-1 as LSU went 0-for-16 on field goal attempts. LSU closed the gap to seven in the first half and then six in the second half, but never any closer than six.
Takeaways from Auburn's win to open SEC play:
Big Walk with a big game...
Walker Kessler put together the best performance of his career on Wednesday as Auburn opened SEC play. He finished the game with the second triple-double in Auburn history, going for 16 points, 11 blocks and 10 rebounds.
The big man was blocking shots at one of the highest rates through non-conference play. It was reasonable to expect him to slow down as the competition got bigger and tougher. Instead, he put up a career-high 11 blocks.
Kessler has 55 blocks now through the first 13 games.
"A lot of guys don't jump because they don't land well. Walker, thank God, lands well, and he's not afraid to get up in the air and put himself in a compromising position," Bruce Pearl said. "That's a demonstration of his toughness. You've got to be a tough guy to be willing to get up in the air in all that traffic, and he doesn't get enough credit for that."
While some were concerned after a relatively slow start to the season for Kessler when he scored six, two and five points against Morehead State, ULM and USF, respectively, Kessler has turned it up a notch on offense. He's scored 14, 19, 13 and 16 in the last four games for Auburn, with at least seven rebounds in each game and five, four, seven and 11 blocks.
Auburn's guards have done a better job of getting him the ball down low and it has paid off. His progression has been a big key for this team and was a big part in Auburn's win over LSU.
The rust is almost already off for Allen Flanigan...
An Achilles injury, even just a partial tear like the one Allen Flanigan had, is super serious. It takes time for players to come back from that and then when they do, it takes time to get rolling again.
Well, in just his second game back Flanigan is getting rolling.
With Devan Cambridge out with COVID, Flanigan was forced to step back into the starting small forward spot.
His numbers don't necessarily jump out, scoring 10 points and adding six rebounds and three steals in 29 minutes, but the eye test is what should give Auburn fans hope.
In his return against Murray State he played 12 minutes off the bench and looked a little gunshy. Even just from that game to Wednesday's game against LSU he visibly looked better and more comfortable.
Those 29 minutes will probably be trimmed down a little bit against South Carolina and Florida.
"Allen played too many minutes tonight," Pearl said. "That's on me."
But Flanigan has knocked off the rust a lot quicker than I expected and probably most people expected.
"Al did better. He was more productive," Pearl said, "He looked more like he was with us. Made some big, big shots. That late-shot clock 3 and-1, that's something that we've seen Al do. And that was a great look for him."
Auburn's defense outplayed LSU's defense...
Auburn's defense got its credit, but all the focus was on LSU's No. 1 ranked defense coming into the game and how Auburn would respond to that.
Well, it was Auburn's defense that outplayed LSU's and held the Bayou Bengals to a season-low 55 points on Wednesday.
Auburn limited LSU to four assists and forced them into 17 turnovers.
"We were able to control our game with our defense," Pearl said. "The fact that LSU only had four assists, that's huge. Four assists and 17 turnovers. So what we did defensively was very disruptive."
To LSU's credit Auburn did end with 21 turnovers, but it was Auburn's defense that ultimately outplayed LSU's.
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