BATON ROUGE, La. – Audia Young scored a career-high 19 points, but Auburn battled foul trouble and a streaky LSU team as the home Tigers earned a 73-63 win Sunday afternoon at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
“We had to play this game with everybody,” Auburn head coach Johnnie Harris said. “Everybody had to step up a little bit. I’m just really proud of how tough they were. I thought with us not being able to really go full speed - they’re still banged up really bad but they’re coming back – but they showed some toughness tonight.”
Leading scorer DeYona Gaston played just 16 minutes while dealing with foul trouble throughout, and LSU took advantage of a smaller, more inexperienced lineup to turn a first-quarter deficit into a double-digit lead they would never relinquish.
“That’s the story of the ballgame,” Harris said. “She got in foul trouble, two quick ones in the early in the third quarter. When you have to sit her for so long, it’s just really hard, and they changed the way they guarded with her out of there.”
Young hit a career-best four 3-pointers and scored her final basket at the buzzer off a no-look pass from Gaston to notch her 19th point and secure the career-high.
Gaston, even in limited minutes, finished with 16 points, 10 of those coming in the fourth quarter.
Taylen Collins added 12 points, and Celia Sumbane – also saddled with early fouls – led the Tigers with six rebounds.
Auburn’s defense was a key, turning 16 LSU turnovers into 23 points. But LSU used its quickness and size to find open shots, hitting 56 percent from the field (30-54) and scoring 44 points in the paint.
Auburn took its initial lead on a 3-pointer by Audia Young to make it 5-4 with 6:26 to play in the first quarter. She would make another triple and a mid-range jumper later in the quarter to push Auburn’s advantage to 16-11, where it would stay to end the first quarter.
But LSU opened the second period on an 11-1 run, moving ahead on a pair of Morrow free throws. Auburn wasn’t able to make a field goal until the midway point of the period when Bostic cut the lead to 22-19.
LSU took advantage of Gaston and Sumbane missing most of the second period with foul trouble, outscoring Auburn 27-8 in the period to lead 38-24 at the break.
Gaston would then pick up two more fouls less than three minutes into the third quarter and was forced to head to the bench for the remainder of the quarter. Despite that, LSU only outscored Auburn by one in the third and led 54-39.
The LSU lead would balloon to as many as 25 midway through the fourth, but Auburn closed on a 21-6 run to cut the final margin to 10.
Aneesah Morrow picked up her nation-leading 17th double-double with 21
Auburn is back home Thursday, Jan. 9, to take on the Arkansas Razorbacks. Game time is 6 p.m. CT at Neville Arena. It’s the annual Play4Kay Pink Game; fans are encouraged to wear pink.