Defense was the name of the game Saturday for Auburn.

The Tigers forced 29 turnovers, including a school-record 21 steals, and snapped a three-game losing streak with a dominant, 78-55 win over Louisiana-Monroe.

“The defense was pretty active today,” Auburn head coach Jeff Lebo said. “Lucas (Hargrove) was jacked from the beginning and got everyone playing with a lot of energy.”

Hargrove was credited with four steals, but his ability to disrupt the Warhawks’ offense led to many other ULM turnovers.

“Lucas got us going — getting in the passing lanes,” point guard DeWayne Reed said. “He was getting us crunk out there and really got us going.”

The strong defensive performance helped overshadow another rough day from the foul line by the Tigers.

For the game Auburn was just 12-of-26 from the line — 6-of-13 in the first half.

“The foul shooting has cost us some games and that’s frustrating,” Lebo said. “But we can see that progress is being made.”

Four Auburn players scored in double figures, led by 18 points from Korvotney Barber.

Tay Waller added 15 points, Reed had 14 and Hargrove chipped in 11.

The game was all but decided early on as the Tigers outscored the Warhawks 20-4 in a span of seven minutes in the first half to build a 16-point lead.

The burst was started with 8 unanswered points, highlighted by a pair of thunderous dunks from Barber.

Auburn then found its mark from beyond the arc as Waller and Reed combined to hit three consecutive treys. Waller’s final 3 gave Auburn its 16-point cushion, 39-23, with 2:44 to play in the half.

ULM’s Malcolm Thomas was the only reason Auburn couldn’t push its first-half lead any further.

The junior scored 18 points in the first half, including four 3 pointers.

However, Auburn held Thomas scoreless in the second half.

“The first half Thomas was phenomenal,” Lebo said. “But we made him a priority in the second half and made him put it on the floor more.”

Auburn (4-4) will now break for 11 days before hosting Tuskegee on Dec. 17.

“That’s just the way it is — we have to take this break during finals,” Lebo said of the long span between games. “We play a lot of games in a short period of time, so the break will be nice.

“We’ll use it to work on our shooting and conditioning, and get ready for the rest of the season.”

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