While Auburn entered the night having split its regular season series with LSU in a pair of close games, there was nothing close about Auburn and LSU’s third meeting of the season as LSU cruised to a 78-48 win in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals Friday night in Greenville, S.C.

It didn’t take long at all for the game to get away from Johnnie Harris and Auburn after the Tigers suffered a nightmarish start that saw them go scoreless in the first 6:52 of the game on a 0-for-13 shooting effort from the field.

Auburn’s first points of the night came courtesy of three made free throws form Taylen Collins.

All the while, LSU couldn’t miss as it went 8-for-9 from the field during its game-opening tear.

LSU sophomore Flau-jae Johnson wouldn’t be denied early in Friday’s quarterfinal bout as she went 5-for-5 from the field in the opening minutes of the game, tallying three made layups and a pair of made 3-pointers. By the end of the first quarter, Johnson had already logged 13 points.

Meanwhile, by the time the merciless first quarter came to a close, Auburn had mustered just five points on a trio of made free throws a single field goal from Kaitlyn Duhon.

And while the remaining three quarters were far less lopsided than the first, the damage had been done and there was no climbing out of the deep hole Auburn found itself in after the first 10 minutes of play.

Each of LSU’s starters finished in double figures Friday night with Johnson leading the way with a season-high 25 points. Meanwhile, junior Angel Reese, who was named the SEC’s Player of the Year Tuesday, finished with a double-double after having scored 18 points and pulling down 11 rebounds.

Leading the charge for Auburn was junior McKenna Eddings, who logged a season-high 15 points against LSU. Eddings was the only Auburn player to finish in double digits as Ja’Mya Mingo-Young and Sydney Shaw finished as the team’s second-leading scorers with eight points a piece.

Friday night’s quarterfinal game was the second consecutive game in which Auburn’s leading scorer this season, Honesty Scott-Grayson, never got going. Scott-Grayson finished with just four points against LSU after having only scored six in Auburn’s win against Arkansas the night prior.

With Auburn having been eliminated from the SEC Tournament Friday night, it now becomes a waiting game for Harris and the Tigers as they wait to see if their name is called on Selection Sunday, which is set for March 17.

Hours before Auburn’s loss to LSU, ESPN’s women’s basketball bracketologist Charlie Creme listed Auburn as one of the last four teams to earn a first-round bye in the NCAA Tournament.

Creme projects Auburn to land in the NCAA Tournament as an 11-seed.