Auburn played a nearly flawless game Wednesday night against lowly LSU (8-12, 1-5 SEC). The Tigers made free throws, hit big shots, limited turnovers, and rebounded well. But, it just wasn’t enough to stop the LSU shooting attack led by junior Marcus Thornton, who played like a man possessed. Thornton scored a career-high 38 points in route to the Bayou Bengals’ first conference win of the season. Thornton was 14-of-23 from the field and 8-of-15 from the 3-point line. He also added 7 rebounds to his career night. Auburn head coach Jeff Lebo was mystified by Thornton’s play and the loss.

“We just got beat by one guy who played as good as anyone I have seen play in a long time,“ Lebo said. “Marcus Thornton hit some threes that were absolutely incredible. It was just an amazing performance by him tonight. We tried to take him completely out of the game, but when he went in the air it was going in.They were bouncing off everything and still going in. It was outstanding.” 

The 38 points scored by Thornton are the most for any Auburn opponent since Joe Harvell of Ole Miss scored 38 points in 1992. Auburn opened the game on a 10-0 run and then traded punches with LSU for the entirety of the first-half, before finally seizing a 42-41 lead going into the locker room at halftime. With less than two minutes to play, Quan Prowell stroked a 3-pointer to give Auburn a 77-75 lead.  DeWayne Reed made another huge 3-pointer to push the Tigers’ lead to five points. Thornton would rise to the occasion and bury a quick 3-pointer to cut the lead back to two points. Guard Quantez Robertson was fouled with 21 seconds remaining in the game and went on to miss the only free throw of the night for the Tigers. The miss proved to be devastating, as LSU drove down the court and found Thornton for a fiercely contested 3-pointer, to give LSU the 81-80 lead, with only four seconds to go. Frank Tolbert fired up a long distance shot at the buzzer that missed badly. Five Auburn players scored in double digits.  The Tigers were led by Quan Prowell, who scored 26 points and 7 rebounds. Rasheem Barrett, DeWayne Reed, Frank Tolbert, and Lucas Hargrove finished with 15, 14, 12, and 11 points respectively. Both teams shot the ball very well, as LSU and Auburn were better than 50 percent from the floor. Auburn had its best free-throw shooting night of the year, making 14-of-15 for 93.3 percent.  With the loss Auburn drops to (12-7, 2-4 SEC). Auburn returns to play Saturday at 4 p.m. CT at No. 18 Vanderbilt (17-4, 2-4 SEC).  The game can be seen live on Fox Sports South. 

An update on the injuries to center Boubacar Sylla and Korvotney Barber: Sylla and coaches have decided to pursue a medical redshirt.  Sylla was originally expected to return to action last weekend for the Alabama game, but coaches held him out of the lineup because of some lingering soreness. Barber will be reevaluated and there is likelihood that Auburn coaches will also pursue a medical redshirt for his season as well. Barber played only 6 minutes over the NCAA maximum minutes for medical hardship status.