By JOHN ZENOR
AP Sports Writer

AUBURN, Ala. (AP) -- Allen Payne scored 15 points and Auburn
opened Southeastern Conference play with a 68-63 victory over
LSU on Wednesday night.



Auburn (7-7) rode a 24-7 run starting early in the second half
to the team's fifth win in seven games, snapping a streak of
five straight defeats in SEC openers.



LSU (9-3, 0-1), which fell to 1-3 in road games, used a 22-6 run
to lead 33-27 early in the second half before getting overtaken.



Freshman Shaquille Johnson scored a season-high 11 points and
matched his best total with nine rebounds for Auburn.



Frankie Sullivan added 10 points before fouling out in the final
minute while Rob Chubb had eight points and eight boards.



Charles Carmouche led LSU with 15 points and hit two of his four
3-pointers in the final 22 seconds.



Anthony Hickey had 13 points and three steals. Andrew Stringer
also scored 13 points while making 3 of 6 3-pointers.



LSU's leading scorer Shavon Coleman scored a season-low four
points after coming in having recorded back-to-back
double-doubles in points and rebounds. He was 2-of-9 shooting
but led the team with nine rebounds.



Auburn led by as many as 14 points late before LSU closed the
gap mostly with Carmouche's 3s that were too late to muster a
real threat.



Auburn's No. 2 scorer, Chris Denson, missed his second straight
game with a stress fracture in his left foot.



Payne continued to pick up some of the slack. He had scored a
career-high 17 in the last game, a win over Florida State, and
also had four assists in this game.



LSU trailed by eight points three times but led 28-27 at
halftime and scored the first five points of the second half.
That forced Auburn coach Tony Barbee to call a timeout less than
a minute after coming out of the locker room.



The game turned after that with the big run.



Auburn spread out the scoring in retaking control of the game
with all eight players seeing action scoring at least five
points.



Auburn hit 14 of 26 shots (54 percent) in the second half. LSU
shot just 37 percent (25 of 67).