{"id":8704,"date":"2026-03-04T11:04:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T06:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/tahaad-pettiford-auburn-control-second-half-dump-lsu\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T11:04:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T06:04:11","slug":"tahaad-pettiford-auburn-control-second-half-dump-lsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/tahaad-pettiford-auburn-control-second-half-dump-lsu\/","title":{"rendered":"Tahaad Pettiford, Auburn control second half, dump LSU"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<section id=\"0\" class=\"w-full\">\n<div class=\"xl:container mx-0 !px-4 py-0 pb-4 !mx-0 !px-0\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-900\/28278176.jpg\" srcset=\"https:\/\/images.deadspin.com\/tr:w-900\/28278176.jpg\" alt=\"NCAA Basketball: Auburn at Mississippi State\" class=\"w-full\" fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\"\/><span class=\"text-0.8 leading-tight\">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. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images<!-- --> <!-- --> <\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-1\">\n<p>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<section id=\"section-2\">\n<p>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<section id=\"section-3\">\n<p>Kevin Overton finished with 21 points for the hosts. Keyshawn Hall scored 17 points, and Elyjah Freeman added 10.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<section id=\"section-4\">\n<p>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<section id=\"section-5\">\n<p>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<p><\/p>\n<section id=\"section-6\">\n<p>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<section id=\"section-7\">\n<p>Tamba&#8217;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<section id=\"section-8\">\n<p>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<section id=\"section-9\">\n<p>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<section id=\"section-10\">\n<p>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<section id=\"section-11\">\n<p>&#8211;Field Level Media<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/deadspin.com\/tahaad-pettiford-auburn-control-second-half-dump-lsu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images 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 [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8705,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8704"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8704\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paknews.centers.pk\/ur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}