BATON ROUGE, La. — Trailing by 8 points with 1:06 left in the game, Auburn knocked down three 3-pointers in the final minute, but could not make up enough ground as the Tigers fell at LSU, 55-52, Thursday night at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

Sophomore point guard Morgan Toles took a last-second 3-pointer from the right side as time expired, but the potential game-tying shot missed to the right.

“We just didn’t quite have enough to finish the game,” said Auburn head coach Nell Fortner, whose Tigers suffered their third consecutive loss. “I thought we made a great run at them in the second half, but the defensive breakdowns when we had the six-point lead, that was tough on us.”

Senior Alli Smalley led Auburn (13-11, 6-5 SEC) with 18 points and seven rebounds. Sophomore point guard Morgan Toles added 7 points with four assists, while Blanche Alverson pulled down a team-high nine rebounds.

The game featured five ties and 11 lead changes. Auburn led by 6 points with 12:14 left in the game, but it would be the Tigers’ last lead as the Bayou Bengals answered with a 16-3 run to take a 7-point lead with 7:28 left. LSU led by as many as 10 points, at 45-35, before Auburn started cutting away at the lead.

Smalley and freshmen Courtney Strain and Tyrese Tanner hit 3-pointers in the final minute to get the Tigers back into the game, but it was too late as LSU (17-9, 7-5 SEC) hit its free throws to preserve the win.

“That was not the shot we were looking for,” said Fortner of the last-second attempt. “We were looking to get the ball to Alli Smalley or Blanche Alverson, but they had them covered up good pretty much all night. It was hard for them to get their shots, they had to work very hard.”

LSU forced 22 Auburn turnovers on 13 steals, turning them into 22 points on the other end.

Auburn will return to action at 4 p.m., Sunday as the Tigers travel to Fayetteville, Ark., for a meeting with Arkansas (16-7, 4-7 SEC).