BATON ROUGE, La. – Honesty Scott-Grayson put on a show with 28 points against the defending champs, but a 40-minute battle by Auburn came up just short in a 71-66 loss to No. 13/10 LSU Thursday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
A late run in the second quarter by LSU gave the host Tigers a 10-point halftime lead, and while Auburn was able to chip away in the second half, they were unable to catch up.
"Our team prepared for this," Auburn head coach Johnnie Harris said. We've been in these situations. This team is getting better and better. We played a really good team, I can't take anything away from LSU. And when we got punched, we punched back. We forced them into 23 (turnovers). We have to capitalize off that. We got better on the offensive end, but we've got to continue to push and work.
"I told our team that if you come back and prepare for the next three games like you prepared for this one, we'll have a chance."
Scott-Grayson's 28 points led all scorers as she knocked down a career-best five 3-pointers to go along with four rebounds and three steals.
In her return to her home state, JaMya Mingo-Young matched a season-high with 16 points – all in the second half as she tried to lead Auburn's comeback bid. She also led Auburn with six rebounds.
Sydney Shaw knocked down some key shots and finished with nine points along with three rebounds.
A nine-point game after three quarters quickly became a six-point game when Scott-Grayson hit her fifth triple of the night to cut the LSU lead to 58-52. Less than a minute later, Shaw cut it to four with a midrange jumper to make it 58-54.
Defense ruled the next several minutes as both teams went scoreless for a three-minute stretch in the fourth. Mingo-Young then went on a personal 5-0 run inside of 3:00, getting Auburn within one possession at 64-61 with 2:28 to play.
Auburn had an opportunity to get even closer, but a sequence of two missed free throws followed by an LSU bucket put the home team up 67-61 with just over a minute remaining.
The lead traded hands six times in the first half, including four times in the second quarter. Shaw hit her first 3-pointer of the game to put Auburn back in front 23-21 at the 8:56 mark. Another Shaw jumper with just over three minutes to play gave Auburn the lead once again at 30-28.
But LSU would finish the second period on a 12-0 run, punctuated by a Flau'Jae Johnson 3-pointer at the buzzer to give LSU a 40-30 halftime lead.
Scott-Grayson was a machine in the first quarter, going on an 8-0 run by herself to put the Tigers ahead 14-12. A deep 3-pointer gave her 11 straight Auburn points to make it 17-14 with just under a minute to play, but LSU led 19-17 after one quarter, thanks to a Hailey Van Lith 3-pointer at the buzzer.
Scott-Grayson hit another career milestone, topping the 1,500-point mark for her Auburn career in the first quarter.
Auburn made seven 3-pointers on the night, its most in SEC play, while LSU made just two – both buzzer-beaters to end the first two quarters. Auburn was 38 percent from the field (24-64) while LSU was 46 percent (23-50). Auburn forced LSU into 23 turnovers, which turned into 23 points. But LSU controlled the boards, outrebounding Auburn 42-28.
Angel Reese had 25 points and 20 rebounds to lead LSU.
Auburn is back in Neville Arena for its final two home games of the season, beginning Sunday afternoon as Texas A&M visits the Plains. Game time is 2 p.m. CT.
