JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Jazmine Jones led a balanced attack with 10 points and ninth-seeded Auburn held off eighth-seeded Missouri 47-45 in the second round of the SEC Tournament on Thursday.

Auburn was holding the 47-45 lead when Brandy Montgomery had her shot blocked by Missouri’s Sophie Cunningham with 24 seconds left. Missouri worked the ball inside but it was deflected out of bounds with 2.3 seconds left. On the inbounds play under the basket, Cierra Porter cut down the lane for the inbounds pass but her contested layup was short off the rim and time ran out.

Auburn (19-11) plays league-champion and second-ranked South Carolina on Friday.

Morgan Stock hit five 3-pointers and scored 17 points for Missouri (21-9) and Lindsey Cunningham added 11. Missouri had 20 turnovers and shot just 35 percent, 25 in the second half.

Auburn shot 42 percent, 37 in the second half when it outscored Missouri 18-17.

— Associated Press —

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Baseball (8-2) won its home opener over Arkansas Pine-Bluff (0-8), 2-0, on Wednesday night (March 2) thanks to a strong start by sophomore RHP Ryan Lee (Grandview, Mo). The win was the sixth straight victory and the third shutout of the year for Mizzou, which returned to Taylor Stadium after going 7-2 during an 11-day road trip in Florida.

Lee picked up the win, pitching a career high 6.1 innings of shutout baseball, striking out three and walking one while giving up just four hits to earn the first victory of his career. He also struck out a career-high three in the win.

Freshman Brian Sharp (Liberty, Mo.) led the Mizzou offense with two hits and an RBI, good for his second career two-hit game. Shane Benes (Town & Country, Mo.) added a double and a run and Trey Harris (Powder Springs, Ga.) and Jake Ring (Ingleside, Ill.) added the other Mizzou hits.

Harris put Mizzou on the board in the bottom of the first with his eighth RBI of the season on a groundout to second base, allowing SEC Freshman of the Week Connor Brumfield (Columbia, Mo.) to score.

Mizzou got on the board again in the bottom of the fourth inning, after Sharp drove home Benes on a single to left field. Benes reached base by doubling down the left field line. He is now tied for the team lead with three doubles.

RHP Cole Bartlett (Williamsburg, Ind.) made his team-leading sixth appearance of the season, pitching 1.1 innings with one strikeout and giving up one hit. Bartlett entered the game with two outs and the bases loaded in the bottom of the sixth. He only needed just one pitch to get Mizzou out of the jam, forcing a pop fly to shallow right field. In the seventh inning, Bartlett got one of his outs by pickoff, his first of the season.

Sharp pitched a scoreless ninth inning, striking out one without allowing any base runners, earning his second save of the season in as many opportunities.

Mizzou begins a four game series with Illinois-Chicago on Friday at Taylor Stadium. First pitch is set for 6 p.m.

— Mizzou Athletics —

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Ben Simmons’ LSU teammates lowered their gaze, shook their heads and laughed incredulously as Simmons politely floated the remote possibility of returning for his sophomore year.

More than likely, the star 6-foot-10 freshman played his final regular season home game for LSU on Tuesday night, and he made it a good one.

Simmons had 22 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists, and LSU held off struggling Missouri 80-71 on Tuesday night to stay alive for at least a share of the Southeastern Conference regular season title.

“A lot was put on that young man’s plate. … He’s always come to work; he’s been tremendous,” LSU coach Johnny Jones said of Simmons, who has now scored at least 20 points in his past five games and has 21 double-doubles this season. “If he does leave, he’s one of the guys I’ve thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed coaching.”

Fans in the LSU student section chanted, “One more year!” for Simmons, who smiled broadly as he acknowledged them.

“It was kind of funny,” said Simmons, who is widely projected to be the top pick in next summer’s NBA draft. “We’ll see what happens.”

Simmons was 6 of 8 from the field and hit 10 of 11 free throws. Jones said both he and Simmons were disappointed with Simmons’ six turnovers, three of which came as Missouri trimmed a 22-point halftime deficit all the way down to three points.

“But how can you argue with 22 and 14 — 6 of 8 from the field?” Jones added. “That was a tremendous stat line. … He played extremely well outside of that area where we had the turnovers.”

Antonio Blakeney scored 18 points, hitting a late 3-pointer and mid-range jumper to help LSU (18-12, 11-6 SEC) secure what initially looked to be an easy victory before Missouri (10-20, 3-14), which trailed by 22 at halftime, put together a 19-6 run to get as close as three points with less than five minutes to go.

Tim Quarterman scored 11 points with six assists for LSU, which entered the night one game behind SEC-leading Kentucky and Texas A&M, both of whom also won.

LSU shot nearly 53 percent from the field and made 11 more free throws (18-7) than Missouri.

Ryan Rosburg, Kevin Puryear and Terrence Phillips each scored 13 points for Missouri, which has lost four straight.

Missouri, which turned the ball over 13 times in the first half, played a much more composed second half, shooting 60 percent (18 of 30) and committing just two turnovers during the last 20 minutes in an effort to pull out what would have been its first and only road victory this season.

“Obviously, in the first half we were horrible. We had no energy and turned the ball over too much. We didn’t get back on defense,” Missouri coach Kim Anderson said. “We had a good discussion at halftime and I really wasn’t sure how we would respond.”

K.J. Walton’s 3 pulled Mizzou to 65-62 with 4:48 to go, but Simmons found Blakeney for a 3 on LSU’s next possession, and Missouri was not able to get within four points after that.

“Ben attracted the whole defense and he kicked it out to me,” Blakeney said of his momentum changing 3. “I just tried to knock it down.”

Craig Victor scored 10 points for LSU, which closed out its home schedule with an 8-1 conference record in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.

—

TIP-INS

Missouri: Missouri will finish its season with a road record of 0-11. … Rosburg has scored at least 10 points in seven of his last eight games. … Walton had 11 points.

LSU: Guard Keith Hornsby was among three players honored before the game on Senior Night, along with guards Josh Gray and Henry Shortess. Hornsby missed his fourth straight game with a groin injury and it remains unclear if he will play in the postseason. … At halftime, the crowd gave a standing ovation for retiring radio play-by-play announcer Jim Hawthorne, who was presented with a framed purple No. 36 jersey to mark the number of LSU basketball seasons in which he called games.

LOPSIDED OPENING

LSU took the lead for good when Victor’s jumper made it 4-2 a little more than two minutes into the game. LSU had its first double-digit lead when Brandon Sampson’s layup made it 21-10 just more than 10 minutes in. Sampson’s 3 shortly after capped a 16-4 run that seemed to mark the onset of a runaway victory for LSU.

Mizzou’s flurry of first-half turnovers included Simmons’ steal that led directly to LSU’s first 20-point lead on Victor’s jumper in the final minute of the opening half.

UP NEXT

Missouri: Hosts Florida on Saturday

LSU: Visits No. 22 Kentucky on Saturday.

— Associated Press —