Feb. 2, 2016
By Charles Goldberg
AuburnTigers.com
AUBURN, Ala. -- The Auburn coaches wanted Bryce Brown to work on his game. He's glad he did.
Brown hit six 3-pointers and scored 18 points, though it wasn't enough to stop Ben Simmons and LSU in an 80-68 loss Tuesday night in front of 8,051 in Auburn Arena.
Brown said the coaches asked him "to get in the gym more, and I did that."
"I looked at my numbers and I wasn't proud of it at all," Brown said. "I got up a lot of shots before this game, and I think that's the reason why I had my success."
Simmons, the preseason choice to be the SEC's player of the year, lived up to his billing by scoring 21 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. He had 17 points and nine rebounds at the half, scored four quick points to start the second half, and didn't score again. But he had set the tone of the game.
"It's an honor to play against him, but, at the same time, you want to go at him as well," Brown said.
Brown was sporty, too, challenging his career-best 20 points he had against Hawaii on Christmas Day. He's hit at least one 3-pointer in 18 of Auburn's last 20 games.
The Tigers hit 10 of their season-high 34 3-point attempts. The good news, coach Bruce Pearl said, was the Auburn bench outscored the LSU bench 33-21.
"From a positive standpoint, it's the first time our bench has played this well," Pearl said.
Joining Brown in double figures for Auburn was Cinmeon Bowers, with 15; and Kareem Canty, with 14.
LSU improved to 14-8 overall and 7-2 in the SEC. Auburn fell to 9-12 overall and 3-6 in the league.
"The losing is tough. It's tough on everybody," Pearl said. "When you're not having success, it wears on them. It's wearing on all of us."
LSU coach Johnny Jones said he was happy to get out of Auburn Arena with the win.
"I am excited about being able to finish the game strong against a team that we know beat Kentucky and Alabama here," Jones said. "We knew that the energy that they play with here would make it an important game and tough game for us."
Auburn will try to bounce back at Georgia at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.
Firing the ball up was not a problem for either team in the first half. Auburn and LSU combined for 66 shots. The Tigers remained in striking range, finishing the half on a 5-0 run to cut the LSU's lead to 38-31.
LSU pulled away early in the second half, going up 64-46 with 10 minutes remaining. LSU led by 24 with 7:56 left, but Auburn fought back, cutting it to 74-63 with less than two minutes remaining.
Charles Goldberg is a Senior Writer at AuburnTigers.com. Follow him on Twitter: Follow @AUGoldMine