{"id":106720,"date":"2026-03-04T12:24:46","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T12:24:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/tahaad-pettiford-auburn-control-second-half-dump-lsu\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T12:24:46","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T12:24:46","slug":"tahaad-pettiford-auburn-control-second-half-dump-lsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/04\/tahaad-pettiford-auburn-control-second-half-dump-lsu\/","title":{"rendered":"Tahaad Pettiford, Auburn control second half, dump LSU"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\"NCAAFeb 18, 2026; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Auburn Tigers head coach Steven Pearl reacts during the second half against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Humphrey Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images <\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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Tahaad Pettiford scored eight of his game-high 27 points during a surge to start the second half as host Auburn pulled away for an 88-74 victory over LSU on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Pettiford matched a career high with six assists to help Auburn (16-14, 7-10 SEC) outscore LSU 47-40 in the second half to win for just the second time in nine games and improve its postseason resume.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Kevin Overton finished with 21 points for the hosts. Keyshawn Hall scored 17 points, and Elyjah Freeman added 10.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Mike Nwoko scored 19 points, Pablo Tamba had 12 points and nine rebounds, Jaylen Reece scored 12 and Marquel Sutton had 10 for LSU (15-15, 3-14). The visitors lost for the seventh time in eight games.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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After Auburn led by seven points at halftime, Pettiford scored eight consecutive points for his team, producing a 53-42 lead 3 1\/2 minutes into the second half. The gap reached 12 before two 3-pointers by Reece and one by PJ Carter pulled LSU within 58-51.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Freeman made a jumper and Overton hit two treys as Auburn increased the lead to 11 points near the midpoint of the half. Nwoko made two free throws, but Overton answered with a layup and a 3-pointer to help Auburn take a 14-point lead.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Tamba’s layup ended an LSU field-goal drought of 4 1\/2 minutes, but Hall and Pettiford made consecutive jumpers to push the lead to 78-61 with 6:44 remaining.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Robert Miller III sank a layup to put LSU on top with the seventh lead change of the early going, and he added a dunk for a 16-13 lead. Consecutive dunks by Filip Jovic helped Auburn take a 19-18 lead, starting a stretch of seven more lead changes.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Nwoko dunked to tie the score at 29 before Freeman made a 3-pointer and Hall added a hoop to give Auburn the largest lead of the half for either team to that point, 34-29.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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Carter made a 3-pointer, but a trey by Freeman and four free throws by Hall helped Auburn expand the lead to 41-34 entering halftime.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n

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–Field Level Media<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n


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Feb 18, 2026; Starkville, Mississippi, USA; Auburn Tigers head coach Steven Pearl reacts during the second half against the Mississippi State Bulldogs at Humphrey Coliseum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":106721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neclink.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}