Auburn hands LSU its first loss
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NO. 11 AUBURN 70, NO. 16 LSU 55
AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn’s Walker Kessler blocked three shots before LSU made a single one.
It was that kind of night for both Auburn’s 7-1 center and LSU’s offense.
Kessler had 16 points, a career-high 11 blocked shots and 10 rebounds to lead No. 11 Auburn to a 70-55 victory over previously unbeaten No. 16 LSU on Wednesday night in the SEC opener for both teams.
“I think that we have, if not the best defense in the country, one of the most elite ones,” Kessler said. “I think we showed that tonight. We played aggressive, blocked shots, went after loose balls.”
Kessler got the second triple double in Auburn’s program history, but it didn’t become official until well after the game ended.
Auburn’s official scorer changed the stats to credit Kessler with a rebound that had initially gone down as a team board with 9:55 left in the first half. It became official more than 90 minutes after the game ended.
Kenny Gabriel had Auburn’s only other triple double on Jan. 2, 2012 against Bethune-Cookman. He had 24 points, 13 rebounds and 10 blocks.
Freshman Jabari Smith also scored 16 points for Auburn (12-1), which has won nine in a row and didn’t give up a field goal in the opening 10 minutes.
LSU (12-1), which came as one of major college basketball’s five unbeaten teams, scored just one point in the first 10:45 but still managed to pull to within six a couple of times in the second half.
It was the lone regular-season matchup between two of the SEC’s top contenders.
“We don’t want anybody to do our work for us,” Auburn Coach Bruce Pearl said. “So it was an opportunity not only for us to get one [win] but to give them one [loss].”
Wendell Green Jr. had 15 points and preseason All-SEC guard Allen Flanigan (Little Rock Parkview) scored 10 in his first start.
Flanigan returned against Murray State and scored three points after missing the first 11 games recovering from Achilles surgery.
“We’ve been missing Allen,” Kessler said. “It’s so good to see him back out on the court. He’s a big part of our team.”
Xavier Pinson had 13 points when he fouled out with 5:32 left for LSU. Leading scorer Tari Eason, who missed the Lipscomb game with back spasms, got foul No. 5 a couple of minutes later and scored 11. Darius Days also scored 11.
“I thought we played with tremendous effort,” LSU Coach Will Wade said. “We played our hearts out. We just didn’t play with the discipline and the smarts that we needed.
“The start was obviously not great again, but we cut it to six in both halves.”
In other Top 25 games Wednesday night, Keion Brooks Jr. scored 17 points, TyTy Washington Jr. added 14 points and No. 18 Kentucky rolled past Missouri 83-56. The Wildcats (10-2, 1-0) trailed just once early on against the Tigers, but Kentucky had some ragged stretches in the second half before pulling away. Amari Davis and Dajuan Gordon had 10 points each for Missouri (6-7, 0-1), which dropped its fourth in six games. … Jahvon Quinerly scored 18 points and Noah Gurley added a season-high 15 to help No. 19 Alabama beat 14th-ranked Tennessee 73-68in the SEC opener for both teams. Jaden Shackelford, Alabama’s leading scorer, struggled for most of the night before he made a three-pointer and a layup in the final two minutes. The three-pointer tied the game and the layup gave the Crimson Tide (10-3) the lead. Oliver Nkamhoua then made a three-pointer with 50 seconds left to give Tennessee a 68-67 advantage. Keon Ellis answered 10 seconds later with his own three-pointer and Alabama made three free throws in the final 25 seconds to seal the victory. The Volunteers (9-3) were missing Kennedy Chandler and John Fulkerson, who tested positive for covid-19. … Zach Edey scored 21 points, Jaden Ivey added 19 and No. 3 Purdue beat Nicholls State 104-90. Purdue (12-1) shot 57.4% and cracked 100 points for the first time this season. Ty Gordon led Nicholls State (8-6) with 29 points, hitting 9 of 15 three-pointers. … Christian Braun scored 22 points, Ochai Agbaji added 16 and No. 6 Kansas rolled to a 88-61 victory over Nevada in a hastily scheduled game after both teams had opponents drop out with covid-19 problems. The Jayhawks (10-1) were supposed to play Harvard before an outbreak forced the Crimson to cancel the trip early this week. The Wolf Pack (6-5) stepped in when their Mountain West opener against San Jose State had to be postponed because of positive tests within the Spartans’ program. The result was the first meeting of the schools since Nevada dealt Kansas a rare Allen Fieldhouse loss in 2005. … Gabe Brown scored a career-high 24 points as short-handed No. 10 Michigan State pulled away in the second half to beat High Point 81-68 in a matchup of longtime coaching friends Tom Izzo and Tubby Smith. The Spartans (11-2) were without four players, including starters Marcus Bingham Jr. and Max Christie, who tested positive for covid-19 earlier this week. Jaden House had 11 of his 18 points in the first half for High Point (6-7). … Noah Horchler scored 17 points with 13 rebounds, and Nate Watson added 14 points to carry No. 21 Providence past No. 15 Seton Hall 70-65. Jared Bynum also had 14 points for Providence (12-1, 2-0), which is off to its best start since opening 2015-16 by winning 14 of its first 15 games. Alexis Yetna had 13 points and 11 rebounds for the Pirates (9-2, 0-1). … Steven Crowl had 21 points and nine rebounds, and No. 24 Wisconsin struggled to put away Illinois State, winning 89-85 in its first game after a two-week break because of covid-19. Johnny Davis, the Badgers’ leading scorer, had 20 points on 6-of-23 shooting and 11 rebounds. Second-leading scorer Brad Davison was held to seven points on 1-of-9 shooting. Tyler Wahl finished with 18 points while Chucky Hepburn had 13 for Wisconsin (10-2). Illinois State (8-6) battled back from a 19-point deficit early in the second half and got within 81-80 on Antonio Reeves’ three-pointer with 2 minutes left.