DeWayne Reed scored 21 points and Frankie Sullivan added 15 points and the go-ahead 3-pointer with 1:10 to play to give Auburn an 84-80 victory over LSU in the Maravich Assembly Center on Wednesday night.

But it wasn’t just Reed, Sullivan and the rest of the Tigers offense that helped the team to its first SEC victory of the season. The defense did its part as well, holding LSU scoreless for all but 9 seconds in the final 3:29.

After LSU took a 76-72 lead with 3:29 to play, Auburn scored 10 straight points to put the game away. LSU wouldn’t score again until Dennis Harris’ put-back with 9 seconds to play. With LSU up 76-75, Sullivan nailed the big 3-pointer from the right corner to give Auburn the lead for good at 78-76 with 70 seconds to play.

“My teammates depended on me, and Reed passed the ball to me and trusted me, so I had to knock the shot down for them,” Sullivan said. “My confidence is really going up like it was last year going into the SEC, and the team’s confidence is coming up well and it showed tonight.”

Tasmin Mitchell, who totaled 38 points and 10 rebounds, pushed off on LSU’s next possession. Reed was then fouled by Bo Spencer and sank the first of two free throws. Reed missed the second, but freshman Earnest Ross came up with the biggest rebound of the game, as Auburn then called a timeout with 30 seconds to go.

“The rebound was a very big rebound for the team,” said Ross. “I knew what I had to do. I came out here and showcased my defense, played hard, and I had to get that rebound.”

Sullivan sank a pair of foul shots to put Auburn up 81-76 and to seal the game.

“I think everybody really contributed in this game,” Auburn head coach Jeff Lebo said. “Frankie’s big shot was certainly key and he made some big plays.
Some other guys made some key contributions when we couldn’t guard Mitchell obviously. We put Earnest finally on him, and he came in and did an excellent job and didn’t give him many touches and looks. Mitchell was terrific tonight shooting the ball.

“A key offensive rebound on the free throw by Earnest gave us an extra possession. It really helped us seal the game at the end. We played most of the first half with Reed on the bench and a walk-on freshman point guard on the road in the league and felt pretty good going in at halftime just down 2.”

After LSU (9-9, 0-4) scored the first 6 points to open the game, Auburn went on a 16-4 run to take a 16-10 lead on a Lucas Hargrove 3-pointer with 13:38 left. Reed picked up his second foul 40 seconds later and went to the bench for the rest of the half.

Freshman walk-on Josh Wallace, whose season-high minutes came with 14 against High Point on Nov. 25, played the remaining 13 minutes of the half for Reed and scored 4 points in helping keep Auburn in the game.

Wallace had only played 6 total minutes in Auburn’s previous three SEC games.

Auburn (10-9, 1-3) led by as many as 9 points at 27-18 with 8:42 left in the half on a pair of Hargrove free throws.

Mitchell scored 23 points in the first half alone on 9-of-12 shooting as LSU came back to take a 47-45 halftime lead.

Both teams were torrid from the field as Auburn shot 55.6 percent to LSU’s 55.2 percent, while Auburn made 6-of-10 from 3-point range in the first 20 minutes.

LSU stretched its halftime lead to 60-53, but Auburn scored 10 straight points, 6 on back-to-back, 23-foot 3-pointers from Reed, to regain the lead at 63-50 with 11:42 left. LSU answered with 8 straight points for a 68-63 edge with 9 minutes remaining.

Auburn, which held LSU to only 35 percent shooting in the second half, finished the game shooting 52 percent from the field and 45.5 percent (10-of-22) from 3-point range compared to LSU’s 27.8 percent (5-of-18) from behind the arc. Auburn was 22-of-33 from the foul line, while LSU was 19-of-24.

Lucas Hargrove and Tay Waller had 14 points apiece, while Brendon Knox added 10 points.

Auburn plays at Vanderbilt (14-3, 3-0) on Saturday before coming home to play both Ole Miss on Jan. 28 and Alabama on Jan. 30.