LSU is done in SEC play after losing to an Auburn team that has won 3 games in three days.
A very scrappy Auburn team brought the fight once again and knocked off a talented LSU team for their 3rd victory in the SEC tournament.
For LSU, it was a combination of foul trouble for key players, as well as the inability to put Auburn away. Tim Quarterman, who has been a key piece of this LSU team this year and who also had a triple-double earlier this season, got into foul trouble and eventually fouled out with 9 points, 3 assists, and 4 rebounds. The other player LSU had that fouled out was star forward Jordan Mickey who ended with 1 point and 8 rebounds.
As far as LSU players who managed to stay in the whole game, Keith Hornsby had a good performance with 24 points including 3 three point shots. The other star big man for LSU, Jarrell Martin, finished with a huge double-double of 18 points and 16 rebounds.
For the Auburn Tigers, it would be guard KT Harrell, who led the SEC in scoring during the regular season, coming up big with a three to send the game into overtime and an overall final tally of 29 points. Guard Malcolm Canada was tremendous off of the bench with his aggressive and attacking style of basketball to score 14 points. Forward Cinmeon Bowers also contributed in the battle down low for Auburn and finished with 8 points and 10 rebounds.
This SEC battle did get chippy at one point when Auburn forward Jordan Granger got into a scuffle with LSU forward Jordan Mickey which ended up getting Mickey a technical foul and getting Granger ejected.
With this game in the books the two biggest questions being asked are 'can Auburn beat Kentucky in the semi-finals', and 'did this Auburn loss hurt LSU bad enough to cost them an NCAA tournament bid?'
The answer to those questions are yet to be decided. Auburn has a lot of fight in them but they have to be worn out after three tough conference games in three days. As for LSU, this loss to Auburn doesn't make them look too good, but wins against ranked West Virginia and Arkansas are resume boosting wins the committee will likely still like.
It will be interesting to see if Kentucky stands tall as the SEC champs, or if conference Cinderella Auburn can pull off the unbelievable upset. As for LSU fans, the waiting game begins until they find out their fate on Selection Sunday.