A dominant performance on the glass helped LSU overcome an early 16 point deficit to knock off Auburn 83-78 and improve to 9-1 in conference play.

It was raining threes in the PMAC on Saturday, but it was the visiting team doing most of the damage as Auburn connected on 16 3-pointers for the afternoon. Auburn, who came in leading the SEC in 3-point percentage, began the game 8-of-13 and opened up a 26-10 lead before LSU had a chance to blink.

LSU was able to weather the storm by pushing the ball up the floor off of Auburn missed threes, and got the lead down to 29-26 in the first half before an onslaught of more threes got the lead back up to nine. For the first half alone, Auburn shot 11-of-19 from beyond the arc with four of them coming from point guard Jared Harper, who finished the contest with a game high 25 points.

“We were able to slowly kind of get our gameplan to settle in and we were able to go from there,” coach Will Wade said. “We were very fortunate to be down only three at half but it was a tough matchup for us.”

LSU was also bailed out by 12 first half turnovers from Auburn that led to 19 points off turnovers including a steal from Waters that turned into a three pointer to close the half, cutting a once 16-point Auburn lead to three at the half, 41-38. For the game, Auburn turned the ball over 19 times leading to 31 points off turnovers for LSU.

LSU opened the second half on a 13-3 run headlined by three Tremont Waters three’s that gave the Tigers their first lead since early in the first half. Water’s was tremendous in the second half scoring 12 of his 19 points in the second period. In addition to the 19 points, Waters had 10 assists and three of the team’s 12 steals.

The 22 offensive rebounds the team compiled led to 29 second chance points and none were more important than the six senior big man Kavell Bigby-Williams, who ripped down three in the final two minutes alone.

Wade said the team charts how many times the team crashes the offensive glass and tells his players to go 80 percent of the time. The team goes to certain areas but Wade said “most of the battle is just getting players to go and go hard.”

“We knew the gameplan was to keep LSU from second chance points, keep them off the boards and obviously we didn’t do a very good job of that tonight,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “There was a lack of physicality but give LSU credit they know who they are.”

Auburn was unable to give the punch in the mouth it gave LSU in the first half out of the gate, starting 1-for-7 in the second half and 0-for-4 from 3-point land. It was a tale of two halves for Auburn from downtown as it connected on five threes on 19 shots in the second half after a 53 percent first half. Conversely, LSU shot 6-of-13 in the second half from 3-point land after struggling in the first half at 3-for-14. In addition to the improved 3-point defense, the Tigers were able to impose their will on Auburn in the paint, collecting 38 points total in the paint with 16 coming in the second half.

“We changed our rotations around a little but in the second half,” Wade said. “It was a game where were they going to make more threes or were we going to get more offensive rebounds and points in the paint.”

LSU built a double digit lead of its own with Skylar Mays returning to form with a team high 20 points. The second half swing was capped off by a thunderous Naz Reid slam dunk that he says was meant “to break the rim.”

“Just to switch the momentum from them hitting all those threes in the first half,” Reid said. “I know plays like that hypes the team up, hypes the crowd up so I was happy I was able to finish it.”

Wade said Mays, who had been struggling the last few games, had two exams last week that were weighing on him heavily but thought he looked more loose this morning after getting those monkeys off his back.

“He had a physics test Thursday and an anatomy test on Friday at 7 p.m.,” Wade said. “It’s just a matter of lightening his load a little bit and you could see the weight of the world off his shoulders this morning, these kids have other things going on. He did very well on both tests.”

Auburn wouldn’t go down quietly as the Tigers went on an 11-2 run over a two minute stretch saw that 10 point lead quickly cut to three. LSU didn’t do itself any favors by missing two free throws and turning it over twice in those clutch moments

Clinging to a three point lead with 23 seconds to go, Auburn got the switch it was looking for with the quick Harper facing off against freshman Naz Reid. Instead, Reid used his athleticism to stay in front of Harper who forced a long-range three that fell two feet short of the rim and securing the win.

“I knew Harper was a tremendous shooter,” Reid said. “Once I saw the ball go in his left hand I was just playing for the jump shot. He shot it and I was able to contest it.”

The road gets no easier as LSU will now prepare for a Tuesday night matchup against No. 7 Kentucky at Rupp Arena with tip-off at 6 p.m.