BRETT MARTEL
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BATON ROUGE, La. — Alli Smalley needed little time to shake off one of her worst shooting nights of the season, and fifth-ranked Auburn was thankful for that.

Smalley scored 21 points, hitting all five of her 3-point attempts, and Auburn bounced back from its only loss of the season with a 66-55 victory over LSU on Sunday.

“I just came in tonight with a lot more confidence,” said Smalley, who missed all six 3s she took in Auburn’s 67-58 loss at Georgia last Thursday night. “They just felt really good coming off tonight and I was knocking them down.”

Smalley made three quick 3s to open the second half as Auburn (22-1, 6-1 Southeastern Conference) turned a 5-point halftime deficit into 32-30 lead. After LSU tied it at 34, Whitney Boddie scored 6 points during an 8-2 run and Auburn pulled away from there.

“When you’ve got some offensive players on your perimeter knocking some shots down it makes life a lot easier, there’s no doubt about that,” Auburn coach Nell Fortner said. “It’s nice to be able to have players who can knock down shots. We’ve been doing that all year; we just didn’t do it against Georgia.”

Boddie finished with 14 points and DeWanna Bonner scored 18 for Auburn.

Kristen Morris led LSU (11-8, 4-3) with 14 points, but left the game with 1:07 to go after twisting her left knee. After staying down for several minutes, Morris walked off on her own and said the injury did not seem serious.

“Give Auburn credit,” LSU coach Van Chancellor said. “It just shows you what experience can do for you under pressure in key games ... Boddie, Bonner and Smalley were as good of a trio as we’ve guarded.”

Smalley’s jumper with 11:29 left began a decisive 13-1 run from which LSU could not recover. Bonner scored on a fast-break layup, a driving floater and short jumper set up by an effective upfake during the surge, which was capped by Smalley’s runner that made it 55-39.

After shooting only 33.6 percent in the first half, Auburn shot 62.6 percent (17-of-27) in a dominant second half.

Allison Hightower scored 10 for LSU, which might have kept pace if not for missing 13 free throws, including 11 in the second half.

“I don’t know what I have to do to improve the free throws. It amazes me,” Chancellor said, noting that his players shoot free throws well during practice and pre-game warmups. “I’m a little mystified. We come play at home and I don’t think we can relax enough.”

Auburn led 18-14 midway through the first half, surging ahead with a 8-0 run ignited by Boddie’s short jumper and inside basket.

LSU responded with eight straight points, ending with Latear Eason’s fast-break layup that put the Lady Tigers ahead 22-18.

Bonner, who came in as the SEC’s scoring leader with a 21.2-point average, was held to only three points through the first 16 minutes, and Auburn turned the ball over 10 times in the first half, seemingly bothered by LSU’s league-leading defense.

While Bonner struggled early, Morris thrived, scoring four times in the paint during the first half, once as she was fouled and later on a spin move along the baseline to put LSU up 24-19.

Courtney Jones’ offensive rebound and short jump hook fading away from the hoop put LSU up 28-21 before Bonner’s putback cut it to 28-23 at halftime.

Fortner said she overhauled Auburn’s offensive game-plan during intermission, looking to spread LSU’s swarming defenders out in the second half.

“They play very good defense and it’s hard to score against them,” Fortner said of LSU, which came in allowing a league-low 51.3 points per game. “If you’re not hitting your outside shots, it’s going to be a long day for you.”